The King of Fighters: Pawns of the Purple Flame
by Grey Rayne
Summary: The Orochi threat may have been defeated, but old wounds die hard. Goenitz and Orochi unleash their plot for revenge. Will the odds be too great for Kyo Kusanagi?
1. Prologue

The King of Fighter's: Pawns of the Purple Flame

Disclaimer (warning! Boring disclaimer ahead! People of a nervous disposition beware.): I, Grey Rayne, do not own anything, whether it be items, characters, place names or anything within The King of Fighter's universe. I do own a few miscellaneous characters within this story, but they may be used freely by all.

King of Fighters is a trademark of SNK Playmore.

A/N: This story is set during the years 1995-2002. Mostly 2002, which is a dream match.

Prologue.

Another explosion ripped through his body, shooting agonising pain through him in a relentless wave. He grit his teeth and fought back the urge to cry out, keeping his pride even in, what was certainly, the last moments of his life. He heard a chilly voice speaking from somewhere in the shadows to his left.  
"Fool, only those of the Orochi bloodline may harness such power." He paid little heed to it, though. He had heard a similar phrase echo through his own mind as he began to lose control of it, pushing his new found inner strength to its utter limit and beyond. He fixed his gaze on the team of fighters who he had just fought, some picking themselves up with an effort. His gaze fell mainly upon one young warrior amongst them, the son of Saisyu Kusanagi, and suddenly the explosions that began tearing at him with renewed power didn't matter anymore.  
"I will be back!" he screamed at the fighter, as a pillar of light shot out of the ground beneath him. Rugal Bernstein knew no more.  
Kyo Kusanagi scoffed to himself.

Rugal's death was well documented in newspapers around the world. Black market big-shots cursed the news, having lost one of the biggest 'players' in the shady side of marketing. Otherwise, Rugal's death was celebrated by most people, and only two small, shadowy figures came to the funeral, although there wasn't anything left of the former King of Fighters tournament holder. Rugal's statues, his ghastly collection of fighters encased in iron, disappeared without a trace.

Vice and Mature continued on, although Mature had been slightly disappointed at Rugals death, she seemed to get over it very quickly.

Time passed and King of Fighters tournaments were renewed several times by various benefactors and gang lords for purposes of their own. Vice and Mature decided to team up with Iori Yagami in The King of Fighters '96. Vice and Mature had been sent originally to kill Iori by Goenitz, one of the four heavenly kings of Orochi...

Vice walked absently back to the locker rooms, thinking about the bitter look of betrayal Geonitz would probably have on his face. Iori was more useful than she thought he would be, he had helped them get quite far in the tournament, too.  
She was dimly aware of her team mates, Mature and Iori, walking a few paces behind her. Mature was chatting to Iori incessantly. Iori seemed slightly more aloof than usual, but Vice ruled it off as an 'Iori thing.' She had been able to pound quite a few people and had spilt some blood, so overall Vice was as happy as a bunny in a carrot field.  
A blood curdling scream ripped her out of her thoughts.  
She spun around quickly to the source of the scream; Iori. His face, as much of it as could be seen, was contorted into a mask of both pain and terror, two emotions she had not seen on his face before.  
"Iori, what's wrong?" Mature cried out. She had taken a quick leap away from him as soon as she had heard the scream. Suddenly, Iori seemed to gain control of himself, he bent forward and placed a hand over his face, as if trying to hide it away from view. Vice and Mature stared at him in anticipation, they were just about to rule it out as another 'Iori thing,' when he removed his hand from his face and looked up at them. His eyes were wide and wild, like the eyes of a feral cat when trapped in a cage, froth dripped down from his mouth, which hung open limply revealing his white teeth. Vice and Mature had little warning as he lunged, first at Mature, he clawed at her wildly, purple flames spewing from his hands and singeing her. Mature was taken by surprise and couldn't defend herself at all. She fell to the ground quickly in a bloody mess, clothes and skin singed to a darker colour within seconds.  
Iori turned his maddened attention to Vice, and threw himself at her without even holding his arms up. Vice spun on her heel, her foot coming around in an arch and catching him hard on the cheek, which didn't seem to affect him at all. Vice cried out as Iori clawed at her face and then grabbed her viciously, dragging her down to the ground. Purple flames licked her flesh and she screamed as she was consumed in it. Iori brought his hand back and lunged down at her throat. Vice tried to scream again, but no words or sound came out, except a sickening gurgle. She was aware, in a quickly dizzying state, of Matures limp body several feet away from her. She heard Iori storm away in a torrent of hacking and slashing at everything around him, hissing unintelligibly and groaning under his breathe. Vice turned over onto her front and faced down at the ground. She felt a sticky substance between her almost numb fingers and looked at her palm in wonder. Blood. She usually liked the sight of this substance, but this was her own blood, and she was lying in it. She hoped it wouldn't stain her suit. She didn't really notice the fact that she couldn't take in a breath, she was extremely dizzy and beginning to get very, very tired. If only she could find a nice bed and sleep forever...  
Vice shut her eyes and darkness took hold of her.

Vice opened her eyes again, thinking she had been dreaming. She looked about herself and noticed that she was in a place of complete darkness. The only thing bad about it was that when she looked down at herself, she was slightly transparent, but glowed with a heavenly white light.  
"This doesn't look like heaven!" she announced to no-one in particular, but she got an answer anyway.  
"What, you would prefer the other place?" A female voice said behind her. Vice spun around and raised her fists instinctively, only to find Mature standing several steps away from her. Mature, although she had the same wavy blonde hairstyle and Orochi suit that they had both become used to wearing, was also slightly transparent and glowed with the same ethereal whiteness as Vice, although Vice fancied that Matures glow was brighter than her own. Mature looked about herself in a surprisingly calm fashion, considering the circumstances. She suddenly grit her teeth and threw her hands up in the air.  
"Grr! Iori! Of all the no good double-crossers! The son-of-a-bitch dares to kill me!" Mature shouted angrily, as if she would make him pay for it.  
"No use complaining about it now. Anyway, where's the 'Big Man'? I thought you were supposed to go through pearly gates and then you're allowed to know the answers to your greatest questions!" Vice shouted into the darkness. Mature turned her head from side to side and then stared back at Vice.  
"Well, maybe..." her voice cut off, her eyes suddenly fixing on a point behind Vice's right shoulder. Matures eyes widened considerably and her face, although slightly transparent, went pale. Vice turned around to see what the problem was and her reaction was quite similar to Mature's.  
A figure had appeared suddenly out of the shadows, becoming easier to see the closer it became. Its black robes swept the ground majestically behind it. Vice's eyes wandered to what it was holding in its right hand, whilst noting that the hand itself wasn't a hand at all, it was holding a very large scythe, in the fashion other people would hold a stave or walking stick. Its hand was skeletal, as was its bony face. Its eye sockets were empty, save for a red glow deep within them, staring out at them. The tall figure stopped about 6 feet in front of them. Vice and Mature were rooted to the spot, unable to take their eyes away.  
Death grinned, as he always did, at the two women before him. He reached deep within his dark robes and removed a solitary hourglass. It was quite a cheesy looking hourglass, although it was gold, it looked fairly cheap. Death glared at it for a moment with apparent interest, and then stored it away in his robes.  
"MATURE?" he asked, his voice was very deep and posh sounding, although it had a very unnatural echo to it.  
"Y-yes?" Mature stuttered in her mixture of shock and horror. Death turned himself to one side and held out his arm, beckoning her to walk in the direction his arm was facing.  
"PLEASE, WALK THIS WAY." he said, as a bright white light suddenly appeared and began to grow. Mature hesitated, but obeyed. She turned to Vice before she entered the light and waved her hand. Mature smiled and then turned away, the white gap snapped shut and she was gone.  
"Mature?" Vice shouted. Death, who had practically been ignoring her, suddenly turned to her.  
"DO NOT BE ALARMED." he said in as comforting a voice as possible. "SHE HAS BEEN, LET US JUST SAY, PROMOTED. SHE SHOULD BE HAPPY THERE." his grin expanded slightly, but then he turned away and started to walk into the darkness.  
"Wait!" Vice shouted after him. Death stopped and turned to look at her. "What about me? Don't 'I' get promoted?" She asked peevishly. Death stared at her for a moment, as if agitated, but then reached into his robes again. He removed another hourglass, slightly larger than Matures had been, but also much darker, as if the metal on it had been blackened. The bottom bulb was half full of sand, Vice could see, but the top bulb was empty of sand. Vice could see something else in there. In the top bulb there was a purple flame, immobile at the moment, frozen. Vice recognised it as Orochi energy.  
"What the...?" she said quizzically.  
"IT APPEARS FATE HAS SOMETHING ELSE IN STORE FOR YOU." Death said casually, as if it was the most common thing in the world. Vice glared at him darkly.  
"You're just going to leave me here?" she hissed. Death seemed to give this some thought.  
"YES." he said simply. But continued quickly before Vice could protest. "DO NOT BE ANGRY. TIME IS STANDING STILL AS I AM HERE. HOWEVER, IT WILL RESUME AS SOON AS I LEAVE. YOU WILL NOT BE HERE LONG." Death turned away and started walking into the shadows. Vice watched him fade into the darkness until he was gone. His voice came to her though, as if in a whisper, but she caught the words.  
"FAREWELL, VICE, UNTIL NEXT WE MEET..."

A/N: Orochi's next chapter! yay!


	2. Pawns chapter 1

Chapter 1: The desolation of Goenitz

Disclaimer (No. No! NO! Not the disclaimer again! AGH!): I, Grey Rayne, do not own anything, whether it be items, characters, place names or anything within The King of Fighter's universe. I do own a few miscellaneous characters within this story, but they may be used freely by all.

King of Fighters is a trademark of SNK Playmore.

Goenitz threw a metal chalice across the large hall. It bounced off the head of one of his servants with expert precision, the servant then hurriedly caught it before it clattered to the ground. He bowed before leaving the hall. Goenitz frowned even deeper, he was extremely frustrated and angry. Mostly angry though. After his defeat at the hands of Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami, Goenitz had been punished by Orochi. It wasn't anything too serious though; Goenitz was relegated to his heavenly halls for as long as Orochi thought necessary, which was frustrating because what he really wanted to do was get revenge!

"Curse the Kusanagi and Yagami names!" he roared, his voice echoing in the barren stone hall. The only item of furniture in this room was a throne, the rest of it had been removed by Orochi for an extra punishment. He leaned against the arm of his throne and rested his head in his palm, he had been in this room for years, just sitting or walking around with nothing to do. This made him hate Kyo and Iori with renewed vigour, and he constantly envisioned the moment when he would kill them and then offer up their heads to his lord, to adorn his halls as a trophy for all to see. A new scheme fluttered across his mind, and he smiled. He knew he could not leave this hall to seek revenge himself. However, his lord had said nothing about him setting others to do his work. Who would hate Kyo and Iori as much as him? Goenitz's mind went through a list of possible candidates, before settling for one. He frowned though, he should send someone else too, just in case. His mind fell upon the perfect choice, someone who would hate Iori enough to seek bloody revenge, and plus, there was a link between his choices. Now, all Goenitz had to do was build up the power required to accomplish his task, he knew it wouldn't be easy, so he decided that the other heavenly kings would be required. He focused his thoughts, searching mentally for his younger counterparts. There!

Shermie's thoughts were interrupted by the sense of a familiar presence watching her. She stood up and listened to something only she could hear, before she brushed herself off quickly. She threw her hands above her head, palms to the sky, and a crack of thunder struck the spot where she had just occupied.

Yashiro spun his arm around again, his guitar blaring out a violent chord which would break glass in the physical world. He head-banged slightly as the ear-destroying sounds blared forth from the guitar. He was so engrossed that he didn't immediately perceive a presence enter the room. He jammed along, completely oblivious, until a harsh voice, loud enough to be heard in his mind even above the incessant din, screamed at him. His guitar clattered to the ground and he held his hands over his ears in defence.

"Ah, not so loud!" he hissed viciously. He then froze solid, his face becoming stoic as he recognised the voice. He listened for a moment and then nodded his head silently. He looked down longingly at his beloved guitar, before throwing out his arms to his sides and disappearing.

Chris laughed as he bashed the buttons on his playstation 2 controller. The words 'Shang Tsung wins. Flawless victory' could be heard from the tv. Chris smiled and reached forward to reset. He froze solid in his movements as a voice echoed in his head. Chris frowned and then let out a sigh. He switched off the playstation 2 and stood a few feet away from it. He spun around on his heel and purple flames spiralled up from the ground. Chris vanished.

Goenitz sat back in his throne and sneered in satisfaction. Shortly after, a bolt of lightning, followed by 3 others, struck the ground. Shermie appeared in between these, kneeling down. She stood up and stretched her arms above her head, before checking that her hair was in order. Yashiro seemed suddenly to sprout forth from the earth not far away from her. He grinned as soon as he caught sight of her. A spiral of purple flame made them all turn their heads as Chris arrived in style. Although the bored look on his face told the whole story: he wasn't glad to be here. He brightened up as he saw Yashiro and Shermie, but his face fell as he saw Goenitz.

It still made Goenitz wonder why, when he was defeated and returned to the realm of the Orochi he had retained his personality, whilst the other three had reverted back into the rock and role rejects they had been, whilst maintaining the Orochi power. _'They'll have to do_.' He thought to himself as he surveyed them. They wore the same outfit as him, apart from Shermie, who opted for a short skirt instead of trousers and a more revealing variation of the standard top. No-one complained.

"Why have you summoned us, Goenitz?" Shermie said, uncharacteristically serious. Chris and Yashiro looked serious also. Goenitz had already prepared the speech that would make them willingly help him.

"Ah, my friends!" he said jovially, they didn't seem to respond though, so he continued. "I have a plan, but I need your help to execute it. Do you remember the red haired man who stole some of your spotlight?" They nodded mutely, a scowl spreading across Yashiro's face. "Well, he is also the man who helped to foil my plans in the first place. I was planning to get revenge on him, and that Kusanagi!" He spat the word 'Kusanagi' as if it was a putrid disease. Goenitz stood up and walked towards them, their attention fully riveted on him. "You see, I'm stuck here, but that doesn't mean that I can't still shake things up in the mortal realm." He put his arms around both shermie and Yashiro's shoulders and pulled them round a circle as if they were old buddies, with Chris opposite him. "This is my plan." He began to whisper, their eyes widening as he lay out his plan to them. Chris was the first to speak up.

"Y-yeah, but aren't they...?"

"Yes, but that's the beauty of it!" Goenitz cut him off in triumph. "Who would suspect it? Certainly not that oath Kyo. And Iori is too busy moping around and acting all mysterious and broody to see past his own bullshit!"

"I remind you, we have a kid here." Shermie scolded. Goenitz looked down at Chris, who rolled his eyes.

"I'm sure he's heard it all before." Goenitz muttered.

"It's ok for us to talk about all this, but can we actually do it? I mean, it's really deep stuff, man!" Yashiro said uncertainly.

"Of course we can!" Goenitz practically shouted. "We're the Heavenly Kings of Orochi, to us this is mere child's play." He looked at their uncertain faces, feeling his plan falling quickly down the tubes, he grabbed for a straw. Goenitz took a step away from them, his face suddenly grave. He held his hand out in front of himself, his palm facing upwards. A small tornado appeared on his palm and blew slightly at their clothes. "Power over air and wind." He said darkly. The other three stiffened, knowing exactly what he was doing. Goenitz's eyes looked sideways at Yashiro, who hesitated. Yashiro hesitantly held out his palm in a similar way to Goenitz, except the ground beneath them all seamed to shudder slightly.

"Power over the earth itself." he muttered. They both looked then at Shermie, who didn't hesitate. She held out her palm, lightning surged out of her randomly, stabbing at the ground around her.

"Power over the stormy sky." She said without pause. They all turned to Chris, who had a horrified expression on his face. He slowly held out his shaking hand, a purple flame illuminated his features.

"Power over the flame of death." he said quietly. The room went dark and all of their powers suddenly leapt into the space between them, mixing together in a torrent of power. As it subsided, Orochi himself stood up out of the chaos.

"Minions, you have summoned me..." he said, eying them all in turn, last of all Goenitz, who met his gaze levelly. "Ah, Goenitz, I assume this was of your making?" he said with an evil grin. Goenitz didn't reply, but nodded slightly. "Why, then, have you summoned me?"

"I have a question for you, my lord, to put the minds of my fellow Kings at ease." He said carefully. Orochi waited for him to continue. "Do we, the Heavenly Kings, have power over life and death?" he asked, as if he knew the answer already, but wanted it to be verified. Orochi laughed suddenly.

"Yes, my humble minion, together you may influence life and death. However, I would like to know exactly what it is you are planning." Goenitz scowled and turned away.

"Revenge, my lord, and hopefully something that will bring me back into your favour, for it concerns Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami." Orochi raised an eyebrow in interest.

"I will watch..." Orochi said sullenly as he slowly walked out of the circle they had made and sat in Goenitz's throne, much to Goenitz's secret annoyance. Goenitz turned back to the other Heavenly Kings, who had been staring at Orochi the whole time.

"So, who's with me?" he asked them. They looked at each other for a short while.

"I am." Yashiro said adamantly. Shermie nodded grimly and Chris sighed but muttered a quick 'yes.'

"Now, we lock hands and concentrate!" Goenitz ordered. They all locked hands in a circle and concentrated, until...

"Uh, concentrate on what?" Shermie suddenly said, mimicking the thoughts of Chris and Yashiro. Goenitz's hands dropped and his face became the very picture of frustrated fury.

"The names!" He roared. "Concentrate on bringing them back from whatever hell they're in!" They all nodded and locked hands again.

Orochi watched in interest, it had been a long time since he had seen a union of powers like this. The air began to tingle with static and the ground began to shake slightly under Yashiro's feet. Shermie was suddenly covered in lightning as it burst free. Chris felt himself being steeped in flames, the likes of which would burn anyone else to death instantly. Goenitz was covered in a torrent of wind suddenly. The static grew and grew as their concentration deepened almost involuntarily. Sweet beads broke from their heads and they began to feel weakened. Chris muffled a cry by keeping his jaw shut firmly. Shermie gritted her teeth against the sensation and Yashiro's fingers dug into the hands of the people at either side of him. Suddenly it all subsided at the same time and they all fell to the ground in weakened states. Yashiro's head spun.

"Did it work?" Goenitz roared as soon as he could.

"I-I think something went wrong, I'm not sure." Chris said tiredly. Goenitz turned his eyes to Orochi, who was staring at them all fixedly, leaning forward in his seat as if intrigued.

"It must have worked!" Goenitz said, as if trying to convince himself. "For a second I know I could see their minds, but then it went blank..." he muttered.

"I sensed that too, but maybe they fluttered into existence for only a moment?" Yashiro surmised. Goenitz stood for a moment, his eyes closed, but then he threw back his head.

"RAAAGGGHHHH!" he screamed in frustration and hate.


	3. Pawns chapter 2

Chapter 2: good morning my sweet, whoever-you-are

Disclaimer (Run for your lives! It's the disclaimer! NO!.): I, Grey Rayne, do not own anything, whether it be items, characters, place names or anything within The King of Fighter's universe. I do own a few miscellaneous characters within this story, but they may be used freely by all.

King of Fighters is a trademark of SNK Playmore.

A woman slowly opened her eyes. It was very dark around her, as far as she could tell, but then light seemed to swim into her vision. Her head, which had seemed to be clouded over at first, seemed to clear. She noted that her face was in contact with a blood red carpet and that she felt like she had been there a long time. She tried to move, but a wave of dizziness suddenly came back and she put her hand to her head, it eventually went away and she tried to move again. Her bones protested slightly as she stretched her back, trying to get out the uncomfortable stiffness. She suddenly felt a chill as a draught of cold air washed over her, forcing her to realise her predicament.

"H-huh?" she stuttered as she looked down at herself. She was lying on a carpet absolutely naked. She looked about herself in panic. The room was extremely spacious and the walls were wooden, although it seemed to be night-time, there was light in the room emanating from two wall lanterns. The floor was wooden also around the outskirts, but a large square carpet covered most of the floor. She turned over onto her other side, trying to ignore the feeling of tingles along her naked skin from the carpet rash. Her eyes widened. A man, as naked as she was, was lying about 5 feet away from her. Luckily his back was too her, so she could not see any of his extremities. He appeared to be tall. His hair was blonde and about shoulder length, although it was splashed out onto the ground at the moment. He lay perfectly still, but she felt suddenly angry at him. Had this man raped her? why did none of them have any clothes? She looked about herself, trying to locate any clothes at all, to no avail. The room was almost completely barren apart from themselves. If she had been raped, wouldn't she remember it? She couldn't remember though. In fact, she couldn't remember anything... In a moment of growing fear, she realised that, apart from a few things, her mind was a complete blank. Name. Age. Nationality. She knew nothing about herself! She knew she could speak, which was a huge relief, and she knew what the items in the room were called. She stared at the man accusingly, anger bubbling inside of her. She was going to get some answers. She covered herself up with her hands as best as she could, she cursed herself for having large breasts, before she practically inched her way across the room towards the seemingly unconscious man. She stared at the back of his head as she was within striking range of him, and then she held out a hand and quickly nudged him on the shoulder, before quickly covering herself over again. No response.

"Hey, you, whoever the hell you are, wake up!" she growled in anger. The man seemed to stir. "Don't turn over!" she warned as he appeared to be conscious. The man froze solid, and she saw as his head turned down to look at himself. His hands suddenly shot down to cover himself over, and she edged backwards quickly at his sudden movements. They both noticed at the same time, the mans right arm was missing just below the elbow. A low cry of astonishment came from his throat as he examined it with shocked interest.

"What?" he said hoarsely. His left hand, which he had forgotten completely to use to cover himself up with, inched up to his face, for what reason she couldn't tell. He sat up, still turned away from her, although she didn't know if he was aware of her at all.

"You." She said, not knowing what to think or feel at the moment. He suddenly turned his head to her quickly, as if becoming aware of her for the first time. "Don't look at me!" she shrieked. He turned away almost as quickly, realising she was naked.

"What the hell is going on here?" he said, sounding more frightened than she did.

"I was going to ask you the same thing, buster!" she growled. "What have you done with me? Why am I naked?"

The man tried desperately to remember. Had he harmed her?

"No, I didn't. I couldn't have." he said, noting to himself the slight accent in his own rather rough voice, he couldn't tell what the accent was though. He was completely naked, with a naked woman close by, in an almost empty room, with only one arm and one eye, and he couldn't remember how, when, where and what he was doing there. As far as he could tell, the woman had short brown hair, but he didn't recognise her voice and he hadn't seen her before. "How could I harm you, when..." He waved his right arm so that she could see it. The woman felt sudden doubt, and she looked at herself. She seemed to be rather strong and quite tall herself, but she then looked at his muscled back, he must have been at least 200 pounds. Although, she wondered, wouldn't he be wearing a prosthetic or something? why would he take that off too?

"Did we do drugs?" she asked in horror, wondering what kind of drugs could make a person lose their memories. The one-armed man seemed to consider this for a while, looking around without turning in her direction.

"I don't see any syringes or anything, and besides, I don't feel any after effects..." His voice trailed off as he recalled the dizziness he had felt when he first woke up. The first thing they needed to do was find something to wear, then they could try and figure out this mystery.

"We need clothes." She suddenly muttered, as if reading his thoughts. "I think we're in a dojo or something." she continued slightly louder, doubt riding on her words.

"Hmm, wouldn't there be robes or something of that nature?" He said thoughtfully. He heard the sound of bones popping as the woman stood up.

"You wait here, I'm going to go look around." she said as he heard her walking lightly towards the far end of the room. There was a sliding door there, which she quickly flung open. As she looked down a rather long, dark corridor, she was taken aback by a strange but beautiful painting along the wall to her left, illuminated by the light coming from the room she had been in. The painting appeared to be of some legendary battle. Two men, both wearing Japanese samurai armour, stood side-by-side, facing off against a strange enemy. A white haired man stared across a battlefield at them, a smirk on his face and a strange purple glow in his eyes. She noticed several banners on the battlefield, but she couldn't tell who's they were and what they signified. A black sun on a white banner and a white crescent moon on a black banner. Many dead bodies lay strewn across the field, presumably killed by the white haired demon. She tore her gaze away from this significant artwork, remembering that she was on an errand. She opened another sliding door and glanced in, the room inside was small, and as her eyes grew accustomed to the lack of light, it appeared to be mainly used for storage. She wondered to herself whether she should look in the various boxes and crates in the room, but decided just to take a note of it and continue searching. Another room down the hall gave similar results and she frowned at the large amounts of barrels. She popped her head into the next room and turned to look at her surroundings. Although it was dark inside she could see benches were lined along the four (4) walls and there were hooks above them. She looked at a group of lockers and calculated her chances of getting into any of them, that would be too noisy, and she didn't even know if her and her one-armed assailant/companion/lover/whatever-he-was were alone in this building. She quickly looked about the corridor around her, before something in the locker room caught her attention. Along the far wall, almost invisible in the gloom, was two long sliding doors with many horizontal slits along them, giving it a very closet-like look about it. She crept over to it and pushed one door open quietly. Bingo! in the closet was a large selection of karate-type gear, including white and black baggy trousers, baggy shirts, belts of various colours and plain black robes. She grabbed a pair of white trousers she guessed to be about her size and quickly rammed them on. She decided against a shirt, but decided to wear a robe instead. The feel of the garments made the sides of her lips curl up in a small smile, after the feel of rough carpet this was like velvet. She looked over the gear, wondering what would fit 'him' She grabbed some black trousers, a shirt and a robe carelessly and walked slowly back to the room she had left him in, feeling better now that she wasn't naked, but still apprehensive about this man.

She peeked into the room before entering it fully, to make sure he was turned away. Luckily, he was in the same position she had left him in, sitting on the floor. She stared at his back as he didn't seem to realise she had returned, his skin looked sore from the carpet, as hers was; red and lumpy. She walked forward slowly, and he looked up from the ground as he heard her approaching.

"Is that you?" He asked perplexedly, although feeling awkward that he didn't know what to call her.

"Yes." She said. He still didn't turn around.

"Did you find any clothes?" He asked in the voice of one who has to have faith in someone he doesn't know. She threw the set of clothes at the ground just beside him and turned away so he could dress. "Thank you." He said graciously as he quickly dressed, noting that the garments were slightly too small for him. He put on a pair of black trousers and a black shirt, but left the robes. She felt a blush creep onto her face as she heard the rustle of clothes behind her, she was surprised she hadn't blushed earlier, but she was so angry she didn't have time to feel embarrassed. "You can look now." He said, feeling slightly awkward in saying it. She turned and got her first good look at him as he seemed to scrutinise her as well, although she realised he only looked at her face and didn't let his eyes wander, which made her trust him slightly more. She noticed instantly the empty socket where his right eye should have been, but she tore her gaze away from it and looked at him fully. He had very majestic looking blonde hair running down the sides of his face. He also had a black moustache. He had a very strong jaw-line and thin eyebrows. He was handsome in a sort of rugged way, she had to admit, and even with the baggy shirt you could tell he was well muscled.

He saw her cringe slightly as she first saw his eye. He couldn't blame her, though, most people hadn't seen an empty eye socket before. He used his left eye, which thankfully was good, he must have been 20-20 vision when he had both eyes, to look at her. She had fine eyebrows which seemed to naturally curve downwards into a sort of scowl. Her lips were thin and she had a perfectly curved jaw-line. Her sparkly brown eyes scrutinised him with interest as well. Her short hair came down her face slightly, not quite up to her eyebrows. She was attractive, he had to give her that. He suddenly stepped forward, which made her blink and step back slightly in anticipation. Seeing her reaction he stopped, but then held out his hand in a polite manner. She looked at his hand for a while and then looked up at him. She couldn't see any hostility in his eyes, only anticipation, so she took a step forward and took his hand. They shook hands lightly.

"Pleased to meet you." He said politely, although he didn't have an introduction to give her.

"Likewise." She said.

Goenitz pulled another chunk of his hair out, which instantly grew back, it always did.

"Humph, bunch of screw ups!" he seethed, turning his back on the other three.

"What, you're saying this was our fault?" Yashiro retorted. "You're the one who's been losing focus lately. Maybe you should stop being such a hypocrite and admit your own miserable failures!" Yashiro continued harshly. Shermie and Chris gasped. Even Orochi's mouth fell open slightly. If an angry expression was money, Goenitz's face was his fortune. His eyes flared purple and he grit his teeth so hard that a crunching sound could be heard.

"You'll pay for that remark, you little shit!" Goenitz roared, raising his hands in order to call the power in his veins to strike down Yashiro where he stood.

"Enough of this in-fighting!" Orochi bellowed. Goenitz turned an angry gaze at him, but conceded. Yashiro 'humph'ed and folded his arms. "The problem was not with any of you..." He said, as if thinking out loud. He focused on them as they stared at him in anticipation.

"Could there be...an outside force preventing this?" Goenitz said, comprehending what Orochi was implying. Orochi grinned slightly to himself, which made the 4 kings even more nervous than they already were in his presence.

"It wasn't prevented. The two you tried to resurrect have indeed come back to life, but there has been interference which caused a flaw. The flaw being their personal memories have been wiped clean..." Orochi remarked casually, without apparent interest. The 4 Kings exchanged glances. "Fear not, for they are still remembered by their enemies. All you have to do is position the pieces correctly and the game will play out on its own." Orochi's smile turned into maniacal laughing, and he threw his head back. Goenitz joined in and soon they were laughing in unison. Chris started to laugh maniacally as well, but Yashiro and Shermie gave him a look and he stopped and blushed in embarrassment.


	4. Pawns chapter 3

Chapter 3: Blast from the past

Disclaimer (Riddle me this. Riddle me that. Who's afraid of the big, black... Disclaimer?): I, Grey Rayne, do not own anything, whether it be items, characters, place names or anything within The King of Fighter's universe. I do own a few miscellaneous characters within this story, but they may be used freely by all.

King of Fighters is a trademark of SNK Playmore.

Another slow night dragged on. King looked up at the wall-mounted clock across the room. '11:15, damn...' She thought woefully. La Illusion shut its doors to the public at midnight, and then King, Sally and Elizabeth would be able to sit down and have a quiet drink to themselves. King's eyes wandered over the patrons and met Elizabeth's eyes. The poor girl looked tired, but she put on a jovial face and waved slightly. King smiled and then turned her eyes back to the bar.

"I'd like one of them whiskeys, please." An old man said, popping his head between the shoulders of two burly men. King recognised old man Jack, one of her regulars, and quickly slid his drink across the bar. "Thank ye' kindly, King." He said. King wasn't really listening. Not only was the constant din of voices, music and furniture moving beginning to grate on her nerves (It did every night) but she was also looking across the room concernedly at a man who had had one too man drinks...

Billy Kane shifted in his seat, almost falling off the edge of it, and looked up as he noticed someone standing a few feet away from him, looking down at him. To Billy's blurred vision, he saw a young man with blonde hair and wearing a barman's outfit staring at him with a strange expression. The voice that came to his groggy senses was distinctly female though.

"Billy, don't you think you should go home now?" King asked the intoxicated man. Billy grinned up at her and patted the side of his nose in intoxicated knowingness.

"The bar not shut tul m'dnight." He slurred happily. King was impressed, he could tell the time although she doubted he could even see the table in front of him clearly. He held up his index finger suddenly, as she was about to speak. She realised he was listening to what music was starting up. He listened for a short while and then said a quiet 'Bah.'

"What, you don't like Britney Spears?" King said sarcastically. Billy snorted and slumped back in his chair.

"Fur a secund, I thought it was Ir'n Maiden." He mumbled. King decided to leave him to it, just until closing time anyway, which was fast approaching. She fought her way through the patrons and behind the bar. Sally was being chatted up by a young man a few feet away from her, and she listened half heartedly.

"My name's Dan, what's your name pretty lady?" He was asking, his voice brimmed with confidence. King noticed Sally blushing shyly, the poor girl got hit on quite a bit but never seemed to get used to it. The young man was quite handsome though, King had to admit, but if it had been her, he would be flying out of the bar and landing amongst the trash cans across the street. King's attention was drawn away as a customer was asking for a drink. She heard the main doors open and shut and apparently someone had entered, which was odd, because the bar would be shutting soon. She didn't look that way though, or pay much heed as the din of voices quieted and then resumed its normal level as the patrons glanced at the newcomers. She served the woman who had called her over a vodka tonic.

"Last orders, please. Last orders!" She called out, and a few patrons made for the door. She looked over to where Billy Kane was seated, and sighed in relief as she saw him down his last drink and unsteadily pull himself to his feet, assisted by his fighting pole. Billy looked towards the doors, which he was about to stagger towards, and his blood suddenly stopped flowing. His jaw flapped noiselessly and his eyes widened.

King watched Billy in interest as his mouth moved wordlessly and he seemed to be rooted to the spot. She followed his gaze and saw the newcomer for the first time. She noticed a woman wearing a karate outfit, and she gasped slightly. The woman looked uncannily like the deceased Vice, except for the clothes, which alone were attracting peculiar looks from people. She could hear a few 'Just come from Karate practise, darling?' remarks from some of the more courageous patrons. If it was indeed Vice, King thought it a good idea to stop her patrons before they get hurt. One of the two burly men standing at the counter moved, and King realised that Vice wasn't alone... Standing beside her, wearing a karate outfit himself, was Rugal Bernstein. King decided immediately that it wouldn't be a good idea to be seen by either of them, and quickly ducked down behind the counter, to some of the patron's at the bars confusion. Billy Kane had snuck behind a group of people as well, and was watching Rugal with sudden sobriety. Rugal was walking over to the bar with the attractive woman he had brought in with him, whom Billy's eyes scanned a few times before he could help himself. He recognised her as Vice.

"It can't be Rugal or Vice, they died..." He whispered, trying to convince himself that he should quit drinking this instant. "You're seeing things, Kane." He continued to himself. He then noticed that several people were looking at, moving out of the way of and talking to/about the two. Billy realised he wasn't imagining it. He didn't even know why he was hiding, but he didn't fancy the idea of being recognised as a fighter and challenged to a fight, not when he had downed so many pints. He had Met Rugal and Vice before, only briefly, in a 'business' arrangement. Nothing special, of course, just a few bags of heroin Geese had decided to acquire as a special treat to some of his 'employee's.' But it was enough for Billy Kane and Geese to know that Rugal meant serious, and often deadly, business. Vice and Mature had been welcome distractions from the grim statues that seemed to stare back at Billy from every wall. He didn't pay them any heed until Rugal had kindly explained there true nature, and then even Geese was slightly freaked out by the insane man. Vice seemed right at home amongst it, although he had heard later that she would have preferred a room covered in blood. Those two belonged together, although Vice apparently despised Rugal. Billy gasped as Rugal turned his gaze towards him and met eyes with him, giving Billy a funny look as Billy was staring at him, but then turned away. Billy was both slightly relieved and slightly annoyed that he had apparently remained unrecognised.

King peeked out and saw Vice push through the crowd towards the bar. Sally, who was still chatting shyly to the young man she had met earlier, was both relieved and annoyed at being distracted. A woman in a karate outfit was talking to her.

"Hey, are you the owner?" Vice was asking. Sally looked over to where King was ducking down. King shook her head and waved her hands.

"No, I'm afraid she's busy right now, but can I help you?" Sally replied.

"Yeah, I think so. Where exactly am I?" Vice asked in a tone suggesting she was hiding embarrassment.

"Why, this is the famous La Illusion bar, of course!" Sally said proudly. "I'm surprised you missed the sign, it's about 7 feet high and glows neon." She continued with sarcasm. Vice, unusually, didn't seem to get angry at the remark, although King was fearing for Sally's life.

"No, no, I mean-." Vice seemed to lean over the counter slightly and began to whisper something to Sally that King couldn't hear.

"uh, this is Southtown." Sally said more loudly.

"South Town, where's that?" Vice asked uncertainly. There was a moment were the voices had died down in the bar, before someone, who King recognised as Henrique, shouted out.

"It's in the southern hemisphere!" Which was followed by laughter from many of the other patrons.

"Be nice to the lady." Rugal's voice could be heard, sharply cutting off the laughter. Rugal seemed to whisper something to Vice and they both left. King stood up to see Vice's back quickly disappear as the door shut behind her. She didn't know what to do now, but these events troubled her. She glanced over to Billy, who met her gaze. She could practically see his mind working as his eyes turned quickly from slight shock to his 'money!' eyes. Billy had an idea about how this new information could make him some profit, but he would have to hurry, before someone else snatched up the opportunity. Billy exited the bar and made a run for it.

King looked about herself. She was glad that she had got through this without losing a single patron. She looked across the room at the wall-mounted clock. Midnight. She didn't think she could trust her voice, so she looked over to Elizabeth. Elizabeth could tell that something was wrong just from the look in King's eyes, so she took command of the situation.

"Closing time!" she shouted over the din. The patrons began to walk, stagger, wheel, hobble or be carried out by Elizabeth, Sally or other patrons. King was relieved when everyone was gone, but then grit her teeth and walked across the room. She kicked the Stereo viciously, and it practically exploded. Peace reined over the bar as Sally and Elizabeth stared at King's back in mute shock and worry. King needed to sit down and, she thought glumly, she needed a tequila sunrise.

They had learnt that the city they had come out into was called South Town. Which they thought strange, because it was far too large to be a town...

They walked along in silence for a while, not looking at each other or anyone they passed, ignoring the strange stares they received.

"I think they thought I was crazy..." She said suddenly. He considered this for a moment.

"Probably." He said. "They were also rude and obnoxious, we should avoid public gatherings in future." She agreed whole-heartedly. He suddenly stopped with a slight gasp of pain. She turned to see what was wrong to see him staring at the bottom of his foot.

"What's wrong, did you stand in some dog..." She trailed off as she saw a red liquid on his foot, which she instantly recognised as blood.

"No, on some glass." He said as he wrenched it out. It wasn't a large shard of glass, but it had still drawn blood. She felt strange as she looked at the red substance, it was like a low boiling in her own blood as she stared fixedly. Her heart skipped a beat and her eyes narrowed. Suddenly she was ripped out of her trance-like state as she heard his voice.

"Is something wrong?" He asked her with a hint of concern. He had torn a strip off his right sleeve, because he didn't really need it from the elbow down, and tied it around his foot in a makeshift bandage.

"N-no..." she quavered before turning her gaze away. He scrutinised her for a few seconds. 'Maybe she has a phobia of blood' he thought dismissively, averting his gaze. They walked along in silence for a while longer, unsure of exactly where they were going in the first place. They turned down a dark alleyway, unaware that it was a dead end.

A shadow moved, the light of the streetlamps illuminating a sharp metal object in its gloved hand. The dark shape slid into the alley behind them.

They stared up at the large brick wall blocking their path and turned around to go back. A man had appeared behind them. He was quite small and had a certain hunch-back look to him. His brown coat looked rather tattered, like a person who had been on the streets for a long-time, although the gold ring on his finger and the gold teeth they saw as he smiled at them proved otherwise. The butchers knife in his hand waved through the air threateningly.

"Hand over anything, like, valooable." He said in a deep accent they didn't recognise, waving his knife inches from her nose. They both knew that they had nothing of value on them, which presented a problem. They didn't know if the knife-man meant business, but they didn't like the idea of being stabbed in a dark alley.

"I'm afraid we don't have anything of worth on our persons." He said with a calm tone, which surprised him, because he didn't feel calm at all. The knife-man scowled and stared at them in turn. They could practically see his brain working as he glared at her for a long while, his beady eyes examining her longer than she felt comfortable with. He suddenly turned and held his knife closer to the one-armed mans face.

"You, beat it." The knife-man growled. "Me and your friend are gonna have a good time." he sneered, taking his eyes off of the one-armed man, which was a costly mistake. The knife was suddenly yanked out of his fingers and tossed to the ground, too quickly for him to react to it. The knife man leapt back, throwing back his coat to reveal a belt with a selection of knives hanging from it that would make a butcher blush. This was the type of person who, when deciding to do something, would go overkill. If he decided to go out and threaten people with knives, he wouldn't be able to decide which one to use, so he would just take them all. Another butcher knife flashed in his right hand and he pulled out a fork in the other. They stared at the fork for a while, not knowing what to think.

"A fork?" She said, suppressing laughter. The knife man growled. He then threw the fork into the air. They watched it in wonder as it plummeted to the ground. Before it could reach the ground, his foot shot forward and the sound of metal-on-metal filled the air. Something flew by her ear and she turned at the sound of something hitting the wall behind her. The fork was imbedded in the wall about an inch. She gulped...

King lay back in the comfortable armchair, an empty wine glass hanging limply in her fingers.

"That hit the spot!" she announced happily. Sally and Elizabeth, who were seated on a couch opposite her, smiled and exchanged glances.

"So, what happened. Why all the stereo smashing, suddenly?" Asked Elizabeth, with a tint of sarcasm. King looked back apologetically.

"I'm sorry about that, I don't know what came over me. How much will that set us back, do you think?" She asked concernedly.

"I know someone who can hook us up." Sally said, her usual shyness disappearing around her friends. King nodded glumly. The events of the night coming back to her as the alcoholic beverage thinned out in her blood. She sighed, wondering what to do next. She remembered Sally and Eliabeth staring at her, waiting for an explanation.

"Rugal's alive..." she said quietly.

"What, the big freaky guy who you told us about?" Sally asked. King nodded.

"He was in the bar earlier with his ex-secretary." King muttered. Recollection dawned on Sally.

"What, you mean that one eyed guy in the karate suit?" she whisper-screamed. King nodded again. "He didn't look that evil..." Sally muttered. Elizabeth suddenly laughed.

"How would you know? you were too busy talking to a cutie pie!" She chirped, nudging Sally lightly. Sally blushed. "So, what's he like, do you think he's the genuine article. If not, I'm sure King will beat him up for you!" Elizabeth laughed playfully.

"He was sweet!" Sally defended. "He gave me his telephone number and told me he would always be in. He didn't even ask for mine." She said.

"How's that sweet?" Elizabeth asked. Sally gave her a blank stare.

"It means he won't be calling up every five minutes and pressurising me. I like considerate men." She reasoned. King, having listened to the conversation, had an idea. She stood up suddenly, a large grin on her face.

"I have to call Ryo!" She announced, slightly more cheerfully than was necessary. Sally and Elizabeth giggled, which made King glare at them. "I mean, to tell him about Rugal!" she defended.

"King, honey. Ryo's cute, in his own way. coughas I'm sure you've noticedcough And he's strong, too. But if Rugal's as powerful as you told us, won't Ryo get, kind of, bitch-slapped?" Elizabeth said. King flinched. '_She has a point, if he still has the Orochi power... and he has Vice as well. Best not concern Ryo with this...' _King thought. An idea hit her, and her pretty face hardened in determination. She went to the phone and dialled Ryo's number...

Ryo was in mid-kick when he heard the phone ring, and an observer would be impressed at how fast his reaction time was. He went from kicking at a wall-mounted punching bag to making a dash towards the phone in a second. He picked it up and quickly wiped a few sweat beads from his forehead before answering.

"Sakazaki Kyokugenryo dojo, Ryo Sakazaki speaking." He said politely.

"Ryo, It's King." He heard King's welcome voice on the other end and couldn't help but smile.

"Hey, how's business?" He asked. King scratched her head.

"Actually, Ryo, It's kind of the reason I rang up." King confessed. Ryo wasn't bothered, though.

"No problem, what do you need?"

"Kyo Kusanagi's phone number."


	5. Pawns chapter 4

Chapter 4: Agenda's

Disclaimer (A disclaimer a day keeps the doctor away.): I, Grey Rayne, do not own anything, whether it be items, characters, place names or anything within The King of Fighter's universe. I do own a few miscellaneous characters within this story, but they may be used freely by all.

King of Fighters is a trademark of SNK Playmore.

Billy Kane fidgeted uneasily. He was still moderately drunk, but the events that were unfolding around him would sober up anyone, even Chin Gentsai. The red eyes fixed on him were quite eerie, although they belonged to a polite-looking, if not very pale, young man. Another pair of less polite eyes were also boring a hole in the side of his head, although he ignored these and continued with his business.

"Come again?" Said Adelheid Bernstein politely, sitting back in a large armchair.

"You heard me, your old man's back. I saw him in the Illusion, plain as day." Billy Kane repeated. Adelheid's face didn't even flicker, he just stared at him without any visible emotion. Billy snorted indignantly and leaned on the desk between them. "Look, I was in the Illusion getting plastered and when I went to go home and sleep it off there was this guy. He was about six foot four, he had one eye, a dumb-ass caterpillar moustache and he was missing his arm below the elbow. There's not many people around that look like _that_. Plus he looked exactly like him!" He pointed towards the life-size statue across the large room. The plaque below it read 'Rugal Bernstein.' Billy realised that Adel was staring coldly at Billy's hand on the desk and he quickly pulled it away.

"Mr. Kane, you do realise that my father died some years ago in a tragic accident." Adel said grimly.

"The way I heard it, he blew up-" Billy began, but noticed Adel's frown deepen. "Yup, I know about that. But the way I see it, I wasn't pissed enough not to know one crime lord from another, and trust me, I know something about crime lord's. Actu- AHH!" Billy felt something brush his leg, and in his current uneasy mood he leapt about a foot into the air and landed a few feet away with his weapon drawn. His eyes met that of a panther, which stared back at him with the most intelligent look he had ever seen on an animal. He felt like he was being measured up by the feline; Friend or food? He became aware of the gentle sound of soft laughter.

"Gwan, come here." Said a female voice with slight sternness. He turned and saw the young woman who had been observing them from across the room. He was surprised as hell when the panther walked up to her and sat beside her smartly. The woman looked like she had just come from the Victorian era, a sharp contrast from Adelheid's more modern attire. Although he was staring at her, she hardly even paid him a sideways glance, so he tried to regain focus. Adelheid stood up slowly and walked around the desk. Billy's gaze was drawn to his left hand, a large bag with a familiar sign on the side of it. Adelheid handed it over to a suddenly calm Billy Kane.

"This information is... troubling, Mr. Kane. But I'm also grateful for it. My sister will show you the way out." He said, beckoning to the young woman with a quick move of his hand.

"Anytime!" Billy said, happily counting the green bills in the sack as he was led out by Rose, who practically dragged him by the arm. Once they were gone, Adelheid walked sullenly over to the large windows and stared out at Southtown. The Sky Noah, his own flying fortress, had landed not far from the city, once notorious for it's gang lords. Shifty business was still being conducted, that he knew, because he was also here for business. His eyes glazed as he contemplated this new turn out thoroughly. He became aware of a familiar rustle of cloth behind him, but didn't turn around.

Rose was slightly worried as Adel just stared out of the window. She stood beside him and hooked her arm in his, he didn't resist.

"What is it, dear brother?" She asked, staring up into his crimson eyes. He didn't shift his gaze but sighed deeply.

"Evidently you weren't listening to Mr. Kane." He said, in a tone which was more sarcastic than he felt. She huffed indignantly and a small smile formed on his face for an instant. "It's father, Rose..." He muttered, getting her complete attention. "Mr. Kane seems to believe he's alive, here, in Southtown."

Rose's arm dropped out of his in disbelief. He turned to her, not knowing exactly what her reaction would be, he prepared himself for anything. She stared down at the carpet for a while and then looked out at the city. Although in it's history it had been in the top ten most corrupt hell holes in world history, and it had been blown up and rebuilt, Southtown was still a spectacle at night. Street lamps and house lights twinkled, and the neon signs of various shops and bars blinked. Now her father was down there, and suddenly she wouldn't be anywhere else.

"Can we set up a search to find him?" she asked quietly. Adel nodded slightly.

"Don't get your hopes up, Rose." He muttered. "Mr. Kane might have been lying." Rose nodded lightly without taking her eyes away from the city. Adel turned and walked across the room. He picked up a mobile phone and dialled a number...

Kyo tried to ignore the phone. He just couldn't be bothered at the moment, not after the day he was having. His T.V had literally blown up not long ago in a torrent of purple flame, after he extinguished the small blaze he had found himself wondering '_do t.v's usually burn purple?_' Now he was contemplating this, wondering if it was an omen. He had almost ruled this silly idea out as paranoia, and then the phone had began to ring. Something in his blood told him that he had to pick up the phone, and these feelings of his were usually right...

"Kusanagi residence." He said down the phone, half expecting a booming voice on the other end. He was surprised when he heard a feminine voice, he actually jumped slightly.

"Kyo Kusanagi? This is King!" The female voice said. Silence reared its ugly head for a while. "You know, King from the King of Fighters tournament!" She said peevishly. Remembrance dawned on Kyo.

"Oh, yeah! Bar hostess, Muay Thai Chick?" He said, scratching his chin. "What's up?" He said, failing to think of anything else to say.

"Well, I have a problem..." She muttered. "I have good news and bad news." Kyo waiting. "Vice is alive." She continued. Kyo frowned.

"What, the evil bitch that Iori killed? that's bad news..." He said, now realising that exploding t.v omens were something he should look out for in the future. "What's the good news?"

"Actually, that _was_ the good news." King said in an apologetic tone. Kyo sighed heavily. "The bad news is... Rugal Bernstein's alive too..." Kyo's breathe caught and he coughed slightly.

"I don't want to sound rude or anything, but is this a joke or something?" He asked, clutching at a straw and hoping that it was a long one.

"What? Ring up Ryo, ask him for your phone number, ring you up and then tell you that Vice and Rugal are alive for a joke?" King said indignantly.

"Sorry, It's just a bit of a shock..." He paused a second. "Ryo Sakazaki has my phone number?"

"It was in the Yellow Pages." She replied.

"Who else knows about this?" He asked, sounding more professional.

"Just me, Sally, Elizabeth (My bar-helpers) Billy Kane and now you." King replied automatically. Kyo sighed again.

"You didn't tell Ryo?" He asked quizzically.

"I'd rather not involve him if I can help it." She said levelly.

"Don't see why, as I recall he's pretty tough..." He said scratching his head, he swapped ears as the phone started digging into his right ear. "...Ah, you and him are-" He said in a knowing tone.

"N-no! we're just friends!" She stuttered. Kyo grinned.

"Yup." He said, which could have meant anything. King grit her teeth.

"Yes, I do care about him!" she seethed. "And I know you've fought Iori, Rugal, Goenitz, Orochi and the three heavenly kings. But, Kyo, if you tell Ryo I told you this, so-help-me-god, you'll have to deal with an angry bar hostess, Muay Thai chick!" Kyo gulped, that certainly was a new one on him.

The knife man leapt about agilely, kicking off walls and laughing tauntingly. He felt like he was fighting amateurs. They just watched him as he leapt about. Until he landed on a low roof and leapt high above them, knife drawn back for the stab. They stared upwards in awe as he flew towards them, but something suddenly clicked in their minds. He spun around and brought his leg out in a kick, arcing upwards, a pale white light flashing close behind it in a moon-like crescent. The knife man's face turned from glee to stunned horror as the crescent kick came towards him.

"Oh, shi-" he managed before he was hit, he flew higher into the air, the sound of a sword resonated unnaturally in the night. Before he could land, he felt something wrap around his leg, like a whip. His upwards momentum suddenly stopped and his leg was nearly pulled out of the joint as he was dragged downwards. He slammed head-first into a metal bin and lay still.

"Cool!" she cried out happily. She threw her arm out experimentally a few times, trying to recreate the effect. For a moment, she felt like her arm had extended. "You saw that, right?" she asked excitedly. He was looking at his leg with a glum expression on his face, wondering silently about how he had done that kick. He did an experimental kick. He was surprised at his agility as his leg went into an almost vertical position before he felt any muscle strain, but there was no white crescent this time. "That kick was cool, too." She added quickly. He gave her a quick glare before walking over to the unconscious assailant.

"Is he alive?" She asked. She glanced over his shoulder and noticed that he wasn't checking his pulse, he was going through the mans pockets. "Hey, what are you-" He suddenly threw a large bundle of cash over his shoulder, which she caught easily. _Then_ he checked the mans pulse.

"He's alive." he announced without enthusiasm. He turned to her and she gave him a quizzical look, he noticed she was holding the money cupped in her hands as if it was a slimy creature. "It's probably stolen money, yes. But we need it more than him." He said, grinning lightly. She quickly counted it.

"There's about 200 here!"

"Good thing we were mugged by a well-off thief, wasn't it?" he said sarcastically. They walked away, hoping to find a clothes shop that was open at this time of night.

About a minute after they had turned the corner, the man's left eye opened very slightly and peered about himself. He didn't move for a short while and then, when he was sure the coast was clear, he stood up, with slight difficulty, and rubbed some life back into his neck.

"Ouch." He muttered. He reached into his coat and unzipped a cleverly hidden secret pocket, pulling out a mobile phone. He pressed a button and then pressed it to his ear.

"This is Carrik. They have the item." He said simply.

"Good, report back at once." A voice on the other end replied.

"I'd like to know how the boss gets this info!" he snorted.

"The boss has his ways, it's best not to question them, if you value you're life that is." The phone was suddenly hung-up and Carrik stored it away with an annoyed air. He stared in the direction the two had taken.

K' heard the struggle, he also heard the sound of men shouting and crying out in pain. He then drifted into unconsciousness.

He awoke with a start, feeling giddy. He reached up to the back of his head and noticed the dry blood had turned his bone-white hair into a dark, crimson mass. He had been struck from behind by someone skilled in stealth. Luckily his assailant had been kind enough not to cut his throat whilst he was out cold. He leapt up, remembering the struggle he had heard, and ran into the next room of his apartment. The sitting room furniture was strewn everywhere. K' glared firstly at the smashed wide-screen t.v, feeling annoyed at the attackers. He felt better knowing that two of the attackers were lying dead in front of him, one of them would have to be identified by his teeth, the amount of cuts all over him even made K' slightly shocked. The other was in a better condition, although equally dead. Usually people who were laying face down weren't staring upwards at the ceiling; his head had been twisted 180 degrees. The most important thing K' noticed though, was that there was no Muchiko...

He checked everywhere for her in vain. Then he checked the bodies for anything that might lead him to her. On both bodies he found a simple tattoo on their right arms; A black circle with a K in the middle. Where they Kyo clones? they didn't look like it. And why would they knock him out and take Whip if they were? It just didn't seem to add up.

"A mystery. Humph." He muttered under his breathe. A deep well of anger built up suddenly inside him, but then died down as Whip's face appeared in his mind. "Sister, I'll get you back."

K' grabbed a random pair of sunglasses and glanced quickly in the mirror, his hair was matted with dark crimson. He quickly soaked it and then took the two bodies and carelessly threw them out of the window, hardly hearing the sound of dustbins clattering around far below as he raced towards the door. Somehow, someway, he would find her.

Whip gritted her teeth as she was nudged sharply between the shoulder blades. Her hands were tied roughly behind her back and her face stung. Two large double doors opened in front of her and she was nudged again. She trotted through them, giving a quick death glare over her shoulder to the person who had captured her. The room she entered was very large and seemed to only have a few lights in it. There were infinite amounts of shadows all around her and she could see figures staring at her in the gloom. The huge doors shut behind her with a bang, making the room even darker as the outside lights were blocked out. She was being led towards a throne she could barely see. She could make out several people standing around it, though. One of them was grinning a golden toothed grin as he inspected her closely. She gave him a blank stare in return. Another man on the other side was quite tall and had an arrogant posture about him. His arms were crossed and he was giving her the blankest look she had ever seen, his icy-blue eyes glittering as if they were indeed frozen-over. She couldn't see much else about him though, he seemed to be purposely hiding in the darkness. The figure on the throne was barely a suggestion of an outline. Whip was brought to a jerking halt 10 feet away from the throne as the man behind her suddenly grabbed her wrist. Silence reined for a short while, as the figure in the throne apparently leaned forward in his/her chair and inspected her. The cold-eyed man turned his gaze to the person on the throne.

"Is this her?" He asked in a soft, but cold voice. The figure on the throne nodded.

"We sent three of you, Bane, what happened to the others?" The gold toothed man asked gruffly in a deep Irish accent.

"She killed 'em. Didn't ya, bint?" The man behind her replied. He then grabbed the ropes on her wrists and shook her, laughing nastily. She growled angrily and tried to pull free, but to no avail.

"Enough!" a voice boomed. Whip started on hearing the voice, it sounded familiar. The man behind her stopped shaking her and stood to attention lazily. The figure on the throne stood up and walked towards her slowly. She could hear the soft creak of leather with each movement and she instantly wished K' was here. Then as the figure came close enough to be visible, she realised _why_ she had been reminded of K'. Dark eyes stared at her over a high collar, concealing most of his face below the nose. His usual dark purple coat was covered over by another, even longer coat with white trimmings. Whip stared in disbelief. His white hair, claw-like gloved hands, his stance and mannerisms were exactly the same as she remembered.

"Krizalid!" she cried out in astonishment. He stared at her for some time, his eyes drawn to her left cheek, which was badly bruised. He then turned his gaze upon the man who had captured her; Bane.

"Bane, I instructed you to bring her to me unharmed." He said in a calm voice which Whip recognised, it was the voice he used just before he exploded. Bane didn't seem to realise this though.

"Sorry boss, must of forgot." He said in a careless manner. There was a flash of movement, which made Whip spin around. Krizalid had Bane by the throat and was lifting him physically off the ground with his left arm. Krizalid brought the mans ear closer to Krizalid's mouth and spoke quietly so that only Bane could hear. Whip caught the words though.

"I expect my orders to be followed precisely." Krizalid hissed. The man choked in his grasp, his eyes wide. "Unharmed means unharmed, Bane. You disobeyed me, you pathetic lackey! Let this be a lesson, and an example!" A strange sound echoed through the hall. Whip saw a skewer coming out of the mans back, covered in blood. The man gurgled for a second but then went limp in Krizalid's grasp. Krizalid threw the body down viciously, it bounced sickeningly off the ground and tumbled to a stop, a pool of blood slowly forming beneath it. Krizalid turned to some of the horrified figures in the darkness and pointed at them with his other claw-like glove.

"You, clean that shit up." He demanded nastily as the skewer protruding from his wrist disappeared into his sleeve. The horrified onlookers hurriedly complied, fearing the same gruesome fate. Krizalid leisurely wiped the blood off his hands with a cloth and then turned again to Whip. It was terrifying, the look in his eyes, which had moments earlier been that of practically feral rage, turned just as suddenly into genuine concern as he looked at her bruised cheek. Whip flinched as he brought his hand up, gently touching the bruised area. She quickly took a step back away from him and his hand paused in mid-air for a moment before dropping back down to his side.

"Don't be frightened, Sister-"

"Muchiko." She corrected harshly. "I'm not your sister." Krizalid nodded his head slightly.

"Yes, I remember." He conceded. He then took her arm, before she could pull away, and gently led her out of the great hall. She didn't resist much, she suddenly had a feeling that she was in no immediate danger.

Carrik and the cold-eyed man stared with wonder as Krizalid led the hostage away.

"What the hell is that all about?" Carrik snorted. The cold eyed man didn't reply for a while, but just stared after them as they disappeared behind the door.

"Apparently our boss isn't completely inhuman after all." He said, matter-of-factly.

"He killed Bane. There goes our best stealth agent..." Carrik muttered, as the body was dragged away. Carrik spat and then pulled an old cigar out of the recess' of his coat and stuffed it between his teeth.

"Konrad, find out what you can about this girl." He ordered. The cold eyed man gave him a sharp glare.

"Who put you in charge, street rat?" he said more icily than usual. Carrik didn't lose his temper, but only took a long drag of his cigar.

"She could compromise our operation. We need to know what her link is to the boss." He reasoned. Konrad considered this for a while.

"Ask him." He said, a malevolent grin curling one side of his mouth. Carrik blew smoke in his general direction.

"I'd rather not be impaled." He said, throwing his cigar down at Konrads feet. "I have a mission." He walked away. Konrad just stood there for a while, but then he gestured lightly with his hand. A shape, attractively female, appeared out of the shadows behind him and stood at his side.

"Alla, get someone to find out everything on record about this... Muchiko." He said without looking at her. The female ninja nodded. "And follow Carrik. He has an agenda of his own, I want to find out what it is." The female ninja leapt away. Konrad sighed and stared at the throne.


	6. Pawns chapter 5

Chapter 5: Time will tell

Disclaimer (Sob Forgive me gentle reader's, but I must!): I, Grey Rayne, do not own anything, whether it be items, characters, place names or anything within The King of Fighter's universe. I do own a few miscellaneous characters within this story, but they may be used freely by all.

King of Fighters is a trademark of SNK Playmore.

They stared up at a sign; one of the plainer one's; without neon lighting.

"A second-hand shop?" she muttered gloomily. He grinned to himself slightly.

"It has clothes and shoes. Besides, it's the only place that's open right now." He said over his shoulder as he pushed the door open. She trotted after him gloomily. The shop was quite large, there were books across one wall, ancient toys and old computer games from defunct consoles on the other side, mostly there were clothes though, covering the far side of the shop. An old woman stared at them from behind the counter, her beady eyes peering over the top of a Catherine Cookson book. They walked over to the clothes section and started rummaging through it. She pulled out a rather tasteless purple dress with an unnecessary amount of frills, she stared at it for a short while and then put it back.

"Some of this stuff is crap." She whispered so that only he could hear. He nodded very slightly, but then his eyes lit up as they fell upon a pair of red dress trousers. What's more, they looked like they might just fit him. Meanwhile she was flicking through dresses, although she couldn't imagine wearing most of them, a long black dress caught her eye. It was the type of dress you could imagine pale Countess' wearing. She grabbed a black leather jacket from another rail and a pair of black high heel boots.

"Going for the gothic look?" He said, looking over her shoulder at her selection of clothes.

"Well, I don't know what I like, so I'm just going for whatever I'm drawn too." she said as she put them on the counter. He picked up a pair of large boots and put them on top of his own clothes, which he placed on the counter beside hers.

"That's 35 all together." The old woman said automatically, without prying her eyes away from the book. She handed over the money.

"Is there somewhere we can change?" He asked politely. The old woman waved a hand vaguely towards the back of the shop as she counted the dollars suspiciously.

"Dressing rooms." She said simply. They bustled off in the direction she had indicated, her beady eyes following them.

He sat on a bench, dimly aware of the rustle of cloth and leather behind the curtain across from him. He began humming a tune to himself absently, although when he tried to identify the melody he drew a blank.

"We should name ourselves." He heard her announce as she struggled into the dress. He stopped humming.

"What?" He said coming out of his reverie. She grunted slightly as she finally got into the dress and then she started hopping as she tugged the boots on.

"We don't know... What we're called, so..." She caught herself as she nearly fell over. "...We should give ourselves temporary name's, you know, until we find out who we are." She finished lacing up the boots and pulled on the jacket. She then pulled open the curtain and stepped out. "Is there a mirror anywhere?" She asked, noticing the grin on his face as he looked at her. He pointed with his thumb to a full-length mirror and she turned to inspect herself. Her new outfit showed a bit too much cleavage for her liking and she blushed as she looked at herself. There was also some lower leg showing, but she didn't mind that as much. She pulled the leather jacket tighter around herself.

"I feel like an Edward." He said as he walked into the dressing room and pulled the curtain across. She had to stop herself from laughing. He snorted indignantly as he began to get changed. "What's wrong with Edward?"

"Well, it sounds a little too... English..." she said uncertainly.

"So?" He grunted.

"I mean...uh... you have a bit of an accent, see?" She explained nervously. He paused for a moment.

"Ah, you noticed?" He said as he began to button up his shirt. "How about Rufus then?" He said thoughtfully. She mentally tried to picture the name on him, but it didn't seem to fit.

"Nope." She said. "I think I'm going to name myself Viper, or something." She announced. This met with silence.

"Why?" He eventually said. She looked down at her boots.

"Well, I have this tattoo on my back..." She said. "I think it's a snake of some kind, it's cool."

"Okay then, Viper." He said seriously. He stepped out of the dressing room and glanced briefly at the mirror before turning and slowly walking away. She followed him quickly. They shut the shop's door behind them and began walking aimlessly again. They wondered if they should have asked the old woman in the shop for direction's or, better yet, a map. 'Viper' absently kicked a discarded baked bean tin in front of her as they strolled past an alleyway where a group of people were crowding round a fire in a trashcan. They caught some conversation as they went by.

"-kid's these day's. The other day someone almost tripped over me and all they said was "Watch where you're sitting, you old fu-"

They strolled on. The city around them seemed empty, except for the shadowy figures they could sometimes glimpse and the sounds of feet hurrying away. The buildings were tall and everything seemed so cramped. They vaguely glanced at the graffiti on walls as they passed by, learning the nick name's of several arch-vandals.

"This cities a hell-hole." She muttered as she kicked a beer bottle aside. As if on cue, they heard an explosion of trashcans behind them and quickly spun around in time to see a body land forcefully amongst the wreckage. A grey cat yelped and rushed away in the opposite direction. They walked towards the body with grim anticipation and found that another body was buried in the wreckage, in even worse shape than the first.

"Do you want to check their pulses, or should I? Because either way, the chances they're alive are-" His voice trailed off as he looked at her expression. She was staring at the blood, her eyes looked fierce, like that of a feral cat. Her tongue hung out of her mouth slightly and she took a shaky step towards the blood in a trance-like state. _Hungry...kill...blood..._

K' burst through the building's fire exit and was about to storm off when something strange caught his eye. A large man with one arm was trying to restrain a gothic-dressed woman. He would have thought it was a case of domestic violence, except for the strange circumstances. The two bodies he had thrown out of his window could be seen amongst the garbage in front of them and the woman was making guttural, animal-like noises and thrashing about violently.

"S-snap out of it!" He was shouting, worry evident in his voice. He managed to grab her around the waist and turn her body away from the dead bodies. Her eyes met K's and he could see that they were wide and blood-red even through his sunglasses. But then, slowly, the redness seemed to be drawn back into her and her struggles became weaker. She went limp in his arms, although she was still conscious she suddenly felt drained. K' watched all of this with an impassive look on his face, although he was secretly intrigued. He walked sullenly over to them as she gasped for breath.

"What just happened?" she demanded, noticing the way he was holding her tightly. He didn't reply as he collected his shattered nerves.

"You almost had a Riot of Blood." K' said matter-of-factly. They both looked up simultaneously as if they had just noticed him. K' remained sullen as they seemed to inspect him with a mixture of interest and horror. He couldn't blame them, if _he_ saw a guy wearing full black leather with white hair dyed red with blood and wearing sunglasses at night time, K' would be shocked too. All he had to do was look in the mirror, though. Besides, the two people staring up at him had a special strangeness of their own.

"Riot of blood?" she asked quietly, not liking the sound of it much.

"It means you're either of Orochi heritage or you have had dealings with them in the past, probably the latter..." K' uttered thoughtfully. She stared down at the arm protectively clutched around her waist and she coughed pointed.

"Ah, sorry." He said, drawing his hand away. He then helped her up to her feet and put a hand on her shoulder to steady her.

"Who are you, anyway?" She asked the dark-skinned man standing impassively in front of them.

"I have no time to chat." K' said dismissively. "You guys seem to have enough trouble as it is." He said, turning away from them and beginning to walk away.

"You don't know the half of it." He muttered under his breath. K' caught this though. He stopped walking.

"Oh?" K' said over his shoulder.

King snuggled into her bed. She had just got back from walking Sally and Elizabeth home; South Town was a dangerous place to be by yourself in, and Sally or Elizabeth would be easy targets for muggers and rapists. King was known, and feared, by the criminals in South Town, and any newcomers who thought that three women looked like easy targets had soon learnt the error of their ways. She felt light-headed. Kyo was coming to South Town as quickly as possible, which gave her some relief at least. She began to daydream about Ryo when there was an intrusive noise. Her bleary senses woke up enough to recognise it as someone banging on the bars main door downstairs. She tried to ignore it, but it continued incessantly. She threw back the covers and slipped out of bed. After wrapping a night-gown around herself, for decencies sake, she charged angrily out of her bedroom and down the stairs. The knocking continued.

"Partir, we closed at 12!" she shouted, slipping slightly into French in her tired state. She looked up at the wall mounted clock. It was 2:00 in the morning.

"Is that Miss King?" she heard a low male voice behind the door.

"Yes it is. What do you want, it's 2 in the morning!" She huffed.

"My name's K'..." The voice said simply. Her weary thoughts suddenly pictured a leather clad, flame wielding Kyo clone from the recent King of Fighters tournaments. She unlocked the door and opened it slightly, drawing back her clenched fist just in case it was someone messing around. It was indeed K', the Kyo clone. But he wasn't alone.

The epic battle continued.

Shermie and Chris watched nervously from the side. Shermie bit her fingernails absently whilst Chris' eyes swivelled from one combatant to the other. This match was to prove who was the dominant of the adult males in the four heavenly kings. Everything rode on this epic contest, including Orochi's favour. Their eyes met with fierce determination as Orochi himself watched on from Goenitz's throne. He looked bored. Yashiro visibly flinched as Goenitz's hand shot out and his mouth opened wide.

"I have you now!" Goenitz roared as he reached forward.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Yashiro screamed.

The sound of stone-on-glass filled the air and all went deathly quiet.

"Check-mate!" Goenitz barked. Yashiro hung his head in defeat. Chris and Shermie breathed out.

"Bad luck, Yashiro." Shermie said kindly. Chris clapped politely.

"Y'know, this game isn't fair. You're like 2000 years older than me." Yashiro remarked.

"I _told _you, you should have played Twister!" Chris said.

"I'm very bendy for my age!" Snapped Goenitz. This remark met with embarrassed silence. Orochi stood up and grinned broadly, his teeth turning from white to black in synch with his hair and markings.

"Well played, Goenitz." He said as he strode down the steps towards them. They shuffled into tentative postures of attention. Suddenly, a very bad version of the theme music from Ghostbusters started playing. They all turned their heads slowly to Shermie, who had pulled out her cellular phone.

"Hello? Suzie, hi! How's Brad? hmm... Yup, I'm still coming to the party tomorrow. Yes. I'll bring sandwiches! Of course not! Giggle I wouldn't miss it for the world. Love to you both! Bye!" She hung up and smiled sweetly at them as they stared at her in disbelief. "What?" she asked innocently.

"Uh, we're in the Orochi realm, how come people can call you?" Yashiro asked quizzically.

"Oh, Suzie's one of my Orochi servants." She explained. They all nodded and muttered words of acknowledgement.

"You're going to a party, with your servants?" Orochi asked, a rare tone of uncertainty in his voice.

"It's Brad's 25th, I can't miss it!" She said, placing her hands on her hips. Orochi's expression was the picture of incomprehension. God's shouldn't have to deal with teeny-boppers, it's too much for them.

"V-very well." He stuttered. He shook his head and remembered what he was going to say. "Goenitz, you won the '_epic battle_,' Therefore, you may return to the mortal realm and seek revenge yourself."

Everything, except for Goenitz, seemed to slowly darken. He grinned evilly and threw up his hands.

"Soon, Kusanagi and Yagami will be no more!" he roared. A spiral of Orochi power, Flame, Lightning, Earth and Wind, engulfed him. He spun on his heel and was gone.

Chris shuffled nervously over to Orochi's side.

"Master, when will C.Y.S be able to return to the mortal realm?" He asked, looking up at the tall figure. Orochi patted him on the head absently, which Chris hated, and said.

"Time will tell, my young Heavenly King."


	7. Pawns chapter 6

Chapter 6: La Illusion

Disclaimer (You'll like this one, honest. Honest! No? Bah! Shoots you with a cannon.): I, Grey Rayne, do not own anything, whether it be items, characters, place names or anything within The King of Fighter's universe. I do own a few miscellaneous characters within this story, but they may be used freely by all.

King of Fighters is a trademark of SNK Playmore.

Whip was led by Krizalid down a long corridor, in contrast to the large and sinister throne room it was much more humane, in a militaristic sort of way. They passed by living quarters and she caught a glimpse of several men being shouted at by a superior officer. She could see a medical procedure through a glass window as they passed an infirmary. There were toilets, gyms and kitchens here. She noticed that whenever they passed by people, they would stand in stiff salutes; word of how Krizalid punished disobedience had spread quickly. Whip had lots of questions to ask, but she didn't dare to speak. There was something different to Krizalid, something that only those who knew him could have detected. He seemed more thoughtful, more aloof and maybe even more troubled than before. She could see it in his strange red eyes when she glanced at him, like he was looking at the world from a deep pit within himself. They eventually arrived at their destination, the kitchen. Krizalid motioned wordlessly for the rooms occupants to leave, and the few chefs working in the kitchens at the time scurried out. He shut and bolted the heavy door behind them. Whip stared at Krizalid with mistrust in her eyes, but he didn't show any signs of noticing. He silently untied the binds on her hands and she massaged some life back into her wrists. He walked over to a table with several wooden chairs around it and pulled one out.

"Please, have a seat." He said quietly. She slowly obeyed, watching him closely. She wasn't afraid because of the fact that Krizalid was dangerous, but because of the fact that she didn't know what to expect out of this _new_ Krizalid. She sat down and stared straight ahead, aware of the soft creak of leather and swish of fabric as he moved away. She heard the sound of a fridge being opened and turned towards him. A bag of frozen pea's appeared in front of her face and she flinched. Realisation dawned on her and she took it and placed it on her swollen cheek. Krizalid sat opposite her and stared at her. Deja Vu suddenly hit her, as he stared at her with a slightly pained expression, she felt her mind being drawn back into the past.

_#Flashback#_

_She was there before the end, looking down at the struggling figure in the rubble; the mighty Krizalid. He was mortally wounded, she could tell, not even he could survive such internal damage._

"_Sister, help me!" He cried out to her. Usually he would act brave in front of her, even when he was hurting inside but now that was forgotten. A part of his mind knew that he was finished, and that he had failed. 'If I don't tell him now, I'll never get another chance...'_

"_Don't call me that, I'm not your sister!" she replied, the anger from the months they had spent together, always being treated like a little sister, came flaring out. "You're not my brother. You, Krizalid, are a clone of my REAL brother, not Kyo Kusanagi. That's where your memories come from; your memories of me, they aren't real!"_

_#End flashback#_

Then she had left him there, trapped under the rubble...

"Thanks for the memories." She heard Krizalid suddenly say out loud. "I was having trouble remembering what you whispered." He explained, seeing her pained expression.

"It wasn't all I said." She muttered. They both stared at the table in front of them. "Why did you bring me here?" She asked darkly. There was silence for a while before he answered.

"I missed you" he said simply. She looked up at him sharply.

"You could have just asked me to come, instead of sending your thugs to kidnap me!" She snapped. Krizalid held up his hands in a conciliatory manner.

"If I had come myself, I doubt K' would think too fondly of you coming with me. Besides, you may have declined yourself."

"Damn right I would!" She snapped, standing up. "I have a new life now, Krizalid. NESTS and everything about it is in the past for me, I just want to have a normal life with my brother. I'm sorry, Krizalid, but you're a part of my past too, and I don't want to be involved with you anymore." She turned around and walked towards the door, she put her hand on the bolt and slid it along-

"Don't you want to know what I'm doing here? what this whole operation is about?" She heard his calm voice behind her, a sharp contrast to her outburst. She turned to look at him, he hadn't moved from his seat at the table. Whip hesitated. She was curious about what he was doing, it was one of the things she had been wondering about earlier. She slid the bolt back on the door and slowly made her way back to the table.

"You have my attention." She said as she sat down again. Krizalid nodded and said nothing for a while, he stared at the table and sighed heavily.

"Like you, I want to start over." He eventually said. "But I can't because I have unfinished business, ties to my old life you might say." He stood up and walked over to a large freezer, on it was a sticker; a black K with a black circle around it, he ran his hand along it. "With this operation, I plan to sever those ties. In short, I wish to make up for all the mistakes I made in the past." He turned to her. "That's where you come in." He said, the suggestion of a grin could be seen behind the high collar of his coat.

"Me?" She asked quizzically. He nodded slightly and then walked back to his chair, he stood behind it and leaned against the back of it.

"Not only you, of course, but you could play a pivotal role." Whip stared at him for a long while, he stared back levelly.

"Do I have a choice?" She murmured. Krizalid stood up fully and threw out his hands to his sides.

"Of course you do!" He said, as if it was the most obvious thing ever. "I'm asking you to listen to my proposal. If you say yes to it, things will go along smoother for me. If you say no, you can go back to your brother and live out the rest of your life, I won't ever trouble you again."

Whip looked down at her knees.

"This is a lot to ask of me; will I help you or not..." She muttered.

"Do you need time to think it over?" He asked kindly. Whip looked up at him again.

"No, but I want to talk to K' first. I at least want him to know that I'm not in danger. If I decide that I don't want to help, then I can just walk away with him, deal?" Krizalid raised an eyebrow.

"He doesn't carry a mobile." Krizalid said, as if he was completely sure. "He doesn't like phones."

"Yes, how did you know? Have you been spying on us?"

"No, it's just that I don't like phones." He said bitterly. "Being a clone of someone and having some of their memories has its advantages."

Kyo walked through the early morning streets of Southtown. Kids bustled by him and a few recognised him from the King of Fighters tournament and hassled him for an autograph. He didn't feel that great, he was suffering Jet lag. If someone had told him that Southtown had it's own airport he would have laughed, but he had just been there and now he was trying to find the new La Illusion. He wished he had asked King where it was. He could have phoned her on his mobile, if he hadn't forgotten to bring it with him. Eventually, after half an hour of aimless wanderings, he sat down on a bench in Howard park (Named after Geese Howard for some reason.) and dropped his heavy luggage beside him, he made sure to keep one eye on it though, this was Southtown after all. He let his hand fall down limply to the bench beside him, and he instantly regretted it.

"Eww!" he groaned, looking at the chewing gum sticking to the palm of his hand. He waved his hand in a desperate attempt to get the gum off, to no avail. He used the back of the seat, which was quite clean, to get it off. He paused suddenly, something caught his eye and he looked up, he leaned over slightly and there, hiding behind a Burger King, was a large flier pointing down a sinister looking street. It read 'This way to La Illusion!' Kyo grinned and picked up his luggage. Leaping over the fence that surrounded the park and crossing the road, his pace quickened as his gaze fell fully on the large neon lights and the posh design of La Illusion. A small sign, obviously written by King herself, adorned the wall beside the main entrance, it read: NO VANDALISM on Pain of Pain.

Kyo pushed the door open and the sounds of merriment washed over him, several people were singing drunkenly a cloud of cigarette smoke hung in the air. A man cursed loudly as he lost a game of pool and slipped 10 dollars across to the winner. Two attractive young women attended the bar, serving drinks and chatting with the regulars. Kyo pushed his way to the bar and tried to gain one of their attention. He waved his hand at one of the women and she broke off a conversation and came towards him.

"How can I help you?" She asked. Kyo noticed a name tag saying Sally. She had a fixed grin on her face and was wiping a glass with a cloth apparently without realising it.

"I'm here to see King, the name's Kusanagi." He shouted over the din of merriment.

"I'll have to check if she's expecting you!" She shouted back. She motioned for the other bar hostess, who was drying her hands. Her eyes seemed to light up as she saw Kyo and her mouth opened and quavered slightly.

'Oh, no, a fan...' he thought gloomily, although he couldn't help a sly grin forming on his face. The woman, who had a name tag saying Elizabeth, whisper-screamed in the other woman's ear, without taking her sparkling eyes off Kyo. Sally broke off the conversation and came back over to Kyo.

"Come on around, King's expecting you!" she screamed. Kyo nodded and walked around the bar. He noticed the bar hostess' eyes following him, one with awe and the other with anticipation. He smiled in reply and went into a door to a back room.

"Oh my god! Oh my god! That was Kyo Kusanagi!" Elizabeth whisper-screamed excitedly to Sally after Kyo had disappeared through the door.

"Don't have a heart attack, Sally." Elizabeth said hoarsely.

Kyo walked along the corridor, a flight of stairs with a posh banister led to the second floor on his right and a slightly open door was on his left. He opened the door and peered into the dark room, only to find that it was empty. He shut the door and stomped up the stairs. As the din from the bar below grew dimmer he heard voices coming from the first open door on his right. He pushed the luxurious door fully open, praying that it wasn't a bedroom he was walking into, and stared intently into the room, his gaze fixing on the scene before him. His luggage clattered onto the wooden floor, causing the three people sitting and chatting amiably in the room in front of him to turn their heads and stare at him. King was there, sitting with one leg crossed over the other and clutching a wine glass between two fingers, her slightly blood-shot eyes stared at him with worry. Vice was sitting directly in front of her and she had to twist around completely to look at Kyo. Rugal stared straight at him, meeting his gaze. There was a confused look in his eyes as Kyos own eyes stared back with shock and unmistakable hatred.

"W-what the hell?" He quavered, pointing an accusing finger at Rugal. King stood up and positioned herself in between them, holding her arms out.

"Kyo wait, I can explain..." She said sternly.

"He's a mass-murderer! He had my father brainwashed and had him fight against me! He made statues out of his victims! Now he's in La Illusion, having a quiet drink of red wine and a chit-chat?" Kyo hissed angrily. His accusing finger turned to Vice and she glared back with a look of horror. "She was obsessed with blood! She was working for Orochi and Rugal! She was deranged! Now she's here having half a lager?" He continued. King stood stock still for a moment, a look of dread on her face, she quickly turned to look at Rugal and Vice. Rugal's face had suddenly become blank and he was staring at his knees. Vice stared at Kyo, looking for signs that he was mad and finding none. King stomped over to Kyo and took his arm, practically dragging him out of the room, shutting the door behind her and turned to Kyo with an angry air.

"Kyo Kusanagi, control yourself!" She whisper-screamed. "They don't remember any of that, damn it. I was wanting to break all of that to them over time, but now that plan's been ruined!"

"They don't remember...? Huh?" He asked confusedly, his mind trying to digest everything and failing in its current jet lagged state.

"They have amnesia!" She whisper screamed. Kyo and King stared at each other for a while. Kyo's expression slowly drained of all the rage.

"Amnesia..." He muttered, more to himself than to her.

"That's right." She said more calmly. Kyo nodded. King's expression turned into slight concern as she took in details about him. "Kyo, are you alright? You don't look so well..." She asked. Kyo smiled weakly.

"Jet lag." He mumbled. King nodded in understanding.

"You don't look all that well yourself." He said, noticing the bags under her eyes and the visible veins where the whites of her eyes should be.

"I didn't get much sleep last night, my guests turned up at 2:00 in the morning and haven't begun to get tired, being dead will do that to you I guess." She said thoughtfully. Kyo just nodded. He scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

"Man, today hasn't been very good so far, let's hope it gets better..." He muttered. King smiled weakly and opened the door. Kyo shuffled back into the room with an embarrassed look on his face. Rugal was still staring at his knees and Vice looked like she was in a world of her own.

"Nice going, Kusanagi." He heard a low voice saying from his right. He turned and stared into a dark corner. K' was leaning against the wall nonchalantly, his sunglasses had been tucked away in his shirt and he was staring at Kyo with an unmistakable hint of disdain in his blood red eyes. Kyo's accusing finger forgot its earlier blunder and pointed at K'.

"He's here too? Oh, god. The drama never ends!" Kyo cried out to the world in general.

"Bite me, Kusanagi." K' replied coolly. Kyo gritted his teeth.

"Is it true...?" He heard Rugal saying. He turned and saw that Rugal was staring at him. "I'm...a murderer?" He said quietly.

"Don't worry about it." Vice said softly, leaning forward and putting her hand on his in a comforting way. "At least you aren't deranged!" She said with a slight smile. Rugal looked up into her beautiful, honest face.

"Just insane." Kyo said conversationally. King gave him a death glare as Rugal fell back into his dark stupor. "I'll just stop talking now..." Kyo muttered. King nodded sharply in agreement.

"You suck, Kusanagi." K' laughed behind him mockingly. Kyo slapped his hand over his forehead. Today had been a bad day, but it seemed that it was going to be a very long one too.


	8. Pawns chapter 7

Chapter 7: Awakening

Disclaimer (It's that time you've ALL been waiting for!): I, Grey Rayne, do not own anything, whether it be items, characters, place names or anything within The King of Fighter's universe. I do own a few miscellaneous characters within this story, but they may be used freely by all.

King of Fighters is a trademark of SNK Playmore.

Iori's eyes slowly fluttered open. He stared up at the overcast sky, drops of rain splashing onto his face and getting into his eyes. He lay like that for some time but then he sat up quickly, wondering where he was. He wasn't in a city, he was out in the open countryside atop a hill. Then he remembered; he had been walking the night before, he often walked in the countryside to escape the bustle of city life. It had been hauntingly peaceful, but he was suspicious of most things these days. Then he had felt _it, _his cursed orochi blood had began to sizzle slightly. The last time he had felt that sensation was just before he went into a riot of blood. He held on, his own blood trying to stop him, and he ran as far from civilization as possible in a desperate attempt to stop himself from killing. Then he had got to this hill he was sitting on, a solitary old oak sitting atop it with no leaves on its branches provided no solace as the power in him jerked to the surface. Then he had blacked out. He looked at his hands, expecting them to be covered in blood, but thankfully they weren't. He hadn't moved from this spot since the night before. It had been grass before his arrival, but now there was a ring of charred earth under him. He stared at the blackened ground and then picked some up and turned it over in his fingers, testing it absently. Iroi wasn't burnt to ashes, so the flames which charred the earth were undoubtedly his own. 'This is something new' he thought moodily. He stood up and set off towards Osaka.

She shuddered, not because she was cold, but because she felt slightly ill. Her first waking thought was how giddy she felt, even before she acknowledged her name and surroundings. Feeling seemed to return to her limbs and she could feel the comfort of a mattress at her back and a duvet wrapped tightly over her up to her shoulders. There was slight numbness in her hands and feet still, but she ignored it for now. She opened her eyes slowly, but either it was very dark in the room or her vision hadn't returned yet, because she couldn't see anything. As she turned her head red dots appeared in her vision and slowly the world seemed to appear, as if out of a mist. She blinked a few times and looked about herself. The room was one of the old infirmary blocks, which hadn't been used in quite a long while. The curtains were drawn and the room had a grey light to it. Clark was sitting in a chair against the opposite wall, he was snoring loudly. The rest of the room was quite plain with standard grey walls and the usual bed curtain. She tried to speak but no words came out, just a horrid cackle which sounded slightly alarming to her. Clark stirred in his sleep and his eyes slowly opened. He stared at her for a few seconds, his face unreadable as usual. He stood up suddenly, which caused her to flinch.

"Leona, you're awake!" He said with a rare happy tone. She stared at him for a while and then nodded.

"Apparently so." She managed to say, although her voice sounded like she had sand in her throat. The last thing she could remember, they were about to storm a drug cache, then everything went blank. "What happened?" She croaked. Clark walked over to the door and opened it, two guards stationed either side of the door stood to attention.

"Inform Commander Heidern that Leona's awake." He ordered, and then shut the door. He turned to Leona, who was waiting patiently for an answer.

"We were just about to make the big bust, when you suddenly went all...floppy." He said uncertainly. "Then you screamed, we thought you were having another riot of blood, it was like an animals scream. Then you just flopped over and lay still." He finished. Leona knew that would be all he was going to say for a while, he didn't like words; which was fine by her, she didn't feel ready for a conversation at the moment. She nodded and lay back on the soft pillow. She felt weary, like she hadn't rested in days. She closed her eyes and drifted into a sort of day dreaming state. Footsteps echoed in the hall outside and brought her out of her reverie as the door burst open. She tilted her head to see Heidern march in with Ralf close behind. Heidern looked at her across the room intently. Leona expected Heidern to shout at her, but his face broke into that of relief as his eyes met hers.

"How do you feel?" He asked kindly. Leona shrugged as well as she could. "Can you sit up?" He asked. She nodded and tried to pull herself into a sitting position, but she noticed that her hands and feet were strapped to the bed. She looked up at Heidern quizzically and he seemed to realise the cause of her discomfort.

"Ah." He said. He pulled the warm blanket off her, to her secret annoyance. She looked down at herself, she saw that she was still fully dressed in her usual attire, but her wrists and ankles were held down by leather straps, much like the kind employed by mental hospitals... "We had to take the necessary precautions, you understand." Heidern explained as he untied her. She sat up and stared longingly at the blanket in Heiderns hands. He followed her gaze and then broke into laughter. Ralf appeared in her view like a colossus, an enormous grin on his face.

"So glad you're ok, Leona!" he said as he grabbed her in a tight hug. Leona's face went slightly purple as Ralf unconsciously hugged the life out of her, he was stronger than he realised.

"Ralf, give her Co2..." Clark commented dryly.

"Eh?" Ralf said, but then he heard Leona gasp and let go. "Oops, sorry." He said awkwardly. Leona could only nod. She felt slightly embarrassed as they all stared at her for some time, but she hid this feeling as well as she could. Heidern knew her well enough to realise it, however, and quickly averted his gaze.

"Ralf, Clark, we should let Leona rest." He said, although it sounded more like an order. They nodded and exchanged glances. Heidern handed the blanket back to Leona and then turned on his heel and marched out. Ralf patted Leona on the shoulder, which earned him a weak smile off her, before following Heidern. Clark silently nodded to her and then walked out nonchalantly, shutting the door quietly behind him.

Alone, Leona pondered everything. What had happened anyway? Heidern hadn't commented about it, but she knew that he was worried about her. He always covered it over with military procedure, but Leona could see through that. She felt more sorry for him than herself, he didn't need anymore worry...

She arranged the blanket over herself again and lay back on the pillow, slowly falling into a troubled sleep.

"Commander, don't worry about it." Ralf said as he and Heidern marched along a long corridor. Heidern hadn't even said anything, he was being unusually silent. Clark fell into step beside them.

"Leona's strong, I predict a speedy recovery." He said dryly. Heidern stopped in his tracks and the other two walked on a few steps before they noticed. They turned around and stared at Heidern, who stared back at Clark.

"Recover? Recover? We don't even know what happened!" He said, throwing his hands up into the air. "Did she have a riot of blood? Was it a common human illness or something? Either way I don't know!" He punched the wall, which cracked slightly. Ralf and Clark stared at him.

"The doctors couldn't find anything wrong, apart from high blood pressure, but that's normal for her..." Clark commented first.

"Sir, permission to volunteer!" Ralf suddenly barked, standing in a stiff salute. Heidern blinked at him.

"For what?" Heidern and Clark echoed.

"For the mission to find out what's wrong with Leona, sir! That you were just about to conceive, sir!" Ralf barked, military style, staring at a point several feet above Heidern's head. Heidern and Clark's mouths dropped open, but then Heiderns mouth shut and slowly turned up in a grin.

"Good thinking, Ralf. One problem, we have no leads." He said matter-of-factly. Ralf didn't flinch.

"Permission to ask my informants, sir!" He barked. Heiderns face darkened.

"You don't mean..." Clark muttered.

"Yes, sir!" Ralf said, dropping his salute. "If there's one person who knows something, it's _him._" Ralf looked at Clarks face, which was twisted into that of horror, and added. "Permission to go solo on this one, sir!" Clark instantly seemed to brighten up.

"Yeah, you go do that, Ralf." Clark said happily. Heidern nodded slightly.

"Granted." Heidern said. Ralf turned away and began jogging towards the armoury. "Ralf!" Heidern called after him. Ralf stopped and turned. "Be careful on this one." Heidern warned. Ralf nodded and set off at full speed.

"And that's all..." Vice finished recalling all that she could remember and all that had happened since their 'resurrection.' She had difficulty in re-telling the part where they were naked, but Rugal fitted in the missing parts while Vice blushed slightly. King and Kyo nodded after they had finished. K' didn't seem to have been listening from his leaning place, he didn't show any signs of acknowledgement.

"An interesting story, don't you think, K'?" Kyo said pointedly. K' seemed to come out of a daydream.

"Huh, what?" He said.

"I said _an interesting story, don't you think_." Kyo repeated with a sly grin. The other three people in the room could sense the hostility between the two, mostly it was K' who seemed to dislike Kyo, but K' disliked a lot of things...

"I wasn't listening, I was busy thinking..." He muttered. Kyo was about to open his mouth to scold him, but King interrupted him.

"K's sister was kidnapped last night." She said. K' nodded gloomily. Kyo looked from K' to Rugal and Vice a few times.

"Busy night in Southtown last night, with people coming back from the dead and peoples sisters being kidnapped and all..." He said wretchedly. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "And let me guess, you all want me to sort it all out, right?"

"No." K' snapped. "You can do what you like, but I'm getting my sister back." He pulled himself upright from his leaning position and dusted himself off. "I've lingered here too long, the trail will be cold by now..." He stormed towards the door.

"Wait, K'! King shouted after him. "I'll help you." K' stopped and looked at her over his shoulder.

"You sure you're up for it?" He commented. King turned to Kyo.

"Kyo, let's help him out." She said, it sounded like an order though. Kyo blinked at her.

"I thought we were investigating why Rugal and Vice are back?" He moaned. King deflated slightly.

"Well, we have no leads, do we?" She muttered. Rugal pulled himself up from the chair to his full, impressive height.

"We'll help, too." He said adamantly.

"We will?" Vice said flustered. Rugal gave her a blank stare. Vice leapt to her feet nimbly. "Sure, ok..." She added with a sly grin.

K' walked down the stairs, his hands in his pockets and staring at the ground in his usual fashion, with a troop of people who he barely knew and/or disliked following behind him. K' wondered if Whip was still alive. He looked forward to telling her how damn stupid an idea it was to come sight-seeing in Southtown. But no, she had to have her way... _"The last time I was there it was a pile of smoking rubble, I want to see how much it's changed since then..." _she would say. K' was a man of little emotion, but he would give his sunglasses to hear her voice again... she was one of the few people he actually liked. The others, of course, were Maxima, Kula and Diana. He had last seen Maxima fixing some weird looking thing onto his motorcycle. It reminded K' of Maxima's Chain gun, but when K' had asked him what it was, Maxima pressed a button and a concrete wall about 20 feet away exploded, the stunned faces of office workers within stared out of the gap at them. "Sorry!" Maxima had shouted.

Diana and Kula he had, perhaps foolishly, left in charge of his house. Diana would hopefully keep Kula from trashing the place completely...

They stepped outside into the sunlight. A breeze blew at there hair as they looked around.

"This way..." K' said as he started walking down an alleyway. They followed him down the alley and across a busy street, a few cars beeped at them as they walked across the road, but stopped short when Rugal glared at them evilly. K' led them down another, longer back alley and they turned around the corner of a building. The walls were covered with anatomically incorrect graffiti and gang insignia. Rugal and Vice recognised the area, it was the same streets they had wandered into the previous night. King had heard about these streets, they had a reputation even in the hard city of Southtown.

"Gangbang alley." She said, as if she was leading a group of tourists. "Muggers paradise. Any unaware traveller who wanders down these streets at night-time is risking being mugged, beaten, rapped, murdered, harassed and generally treated unpleasantly. " She said.

"My apartment's this way..." K' said over his shoulder. King gasped.

"You have an apartment in Gangbang alley?" She whisper-screamed. Although the streets were eerily quiet and empty during the day, except for the bustle that could be heard in the distance from the rest of the city, King kept looking about herself cautiously, as if expecting a sudden attack. Rugal turned and looked at Vice, who met his eye. They both felt an uneasiness coming over them.

"H-hey, is this close to..." Vice asked from the back of the line.

"Yes." K' said automatically. He held out his hand and motioned for them to stop. Then he walked into a wider, adjoining alley and they saw him stare at something on the ground further along the alley. Kyo fancied that he saw K's frown deepen, if such a thing were possible. K's eyes turned and he stared at Vice for a second through his sunglasses before saying.

"I think you should stay there. The bin men haven't been around yet." He grinned mirthlessly. Vice's face contorted into a look of horror.

"What are you all talking abou- oh..." Kyo walked into the alley beside K' and turned to look at what K' had been staring at before hand. Amongst the bin bags were two bodies, which hadn't been moved since last night. Although K' had remembered one of the two corpses having more jewellery when he last saw them, people in Gangbang alley weren't squeamish about dead bodies, if you looked hard enough they could be found in many places around Gangbang alley. Indeed, anywhere that looked like the ground had been recently dug up probably wasn't pipe repairs...

The others, except Vice who stood around the corner out of sight of the two bodies, crowded round and looked at the eerie scene. Rugal had seen it before, of course, but it was no less grizzly.

"These are the people who attacked you?" King managed to say, without taking her eyes off the bodies. K' didn't reply, but walked towards the closest body as if it was an everyday thing and took it by the pale and stiff arm. K' pulled down the sleeve and showed the arm to them, the black K tattoo with the black circle around it fascinated Kyo mostly. He moved forward, ignoring the smell of rotting flesh, and knelt down beside the corpse, staring at the tattoo.

"Clones?" He said, so that only K' could hear. K' shook his head, staring at the pale face.

"K could mean anything, it doesn't have to mean they have a link to you, Kyo." He commented. Kyo snorted.

"Vice went crazy when she saw these?" Kyo asked quietly.

"Yes..." K' mumbled.

"hmmm, it's blood and violence that sets them off, I know..." Kyo muttered, more to himself. "Vice never had a riot of blood before this, could she control it?" K' listened to his mumblings intently.

"She used to work for some kind of Orochi god, right?" He commented dryly. Kyo gave this some thought.

"You're right, maybe he controlled Vice and Matures blood so they wouldn't enter a riot of blood." Kyo stood up and walked back to the main group. "At least now we have something to go on. King, does that tattoo have any significance that you're aware of?" He asked professionally. King stared at it silently for a while. Rugal had turned away and was patting the ground with his foot impatiently.

"I've never heard of a K gang or anything. Usually the gangs leave graffiti stating there turf, but I've never seen this marking." She said thoughtfully. K' turned to them.

"They might be something new, or something very secretive. Either way, now we have something to start with." He said quietly.

"Well, I for one would like to get the hell out of here." Vice commented from around the corner. "It's fun listening to you guys play detective and all that, but I'm bored." King walked over to her and, despite the fact that they didn't know each other that well, patted her on the shoulder reassuringly.

"Yes, I don't see the sense in staying here any longer." Rugal commented. Kyo nodded, although he was still suspicious of Rugal; he was being the quietest out of them all, even more than K'.

"Where should we go from here?" Vice asked as they all rounded the corner and began to walk away from the grisly scene, the stench of death gladly put behind them. K' seemed to consider it for a while.

They rounded another corner and Vice almost walked straight into a rather tall man. They wouldn't have thought much about him and would have just continued on, but he was just standing there in the middle of the street and glared at Vice with the coldest look she had ever seen. Pale blonde hair hung down the sides of his pale face, his pale blue eyes seemed frozen over. He was wearing black jeans, boots, a white shirt tucked in and a black jacket over it. They all stared at him, he stared back for a while and then turned and stared at K' for a longer time. The mans pale hand found its way into a jacket pocket and the hand came out holding a card. K' saw something that drew his attention on the mans arm as one of the sleeves opened slightly; a black tattoo with a black circle around it. K' was about to leap forward to grab the man and force him to tell K' where Whip was, when the man threw the piece of card at the ground in front of their feet. There eyes turned to it for a second and when they turned back, the alley was empty. The man had vanished.

"That was weird!" King said dismissively. "You get some real nut jobs in this city." They all began to walk away, except K', who knelt down and picked up the card. He read it.

"Wait!" He shouted after them without getting up. They came back to him and he showed them the card, his face grave. The card showed the now familiar K insignia with the black circle around it, it also had handwriting in a small, scratchy hand that they couldn't read.

"I recognise the insignia but not the writing, what language is it?" Vice asked curiously. K' gave her a strange look, both scornful and slightly amused.

"English, but very badly written; my sisters handwriting." He said, staring at the card. "It reads; K', please come to the car park opposite Marks and Spencer at midnight tonight."

"Not very informative, is it?" Vice said doubtfully.

"She probably wasn't allowed to write more." K' muttered. At least he knew she was alive, for now. Or at least she was kept alive long enough to write the message and then... K's mind didn't want to go through all the possible things that could be happening to his sister. It didn't help that it was barely 11:00 a.m, and that there was 13 hours to go until the meeting.

"What are we going to do until midnight?" Kyo asked, as if reading his thoughts.

"We should recuperate." Rugal suggested. "The letter doesn't say you have to go alone, but you should expect a trap of some sort. They might be trying to lure you in." He said to K', who nodded weakly.

King yawned widely and stretched her arms above her head.

"I definitely need to recuperate." She said as soon as she could.


	9. Pawns chapter 8

Chapter 8: Closer

Disclaimer (Help me! I'm running out of corny lines for this segment!): I, Grey Rayne, do not own anything, whether it be items, characters, place names or anything within The King of Fighter's universe. I do own a few miscellaneous characters within this story, but they may be used freely by all.

King of Fighters is a trademark of SNK Playmore.

A door to a spacious apartment in a small village in Japan exploded inwards, flying across the room and smashing into splinters upon the opposing wall.

Gusts of air flowed through the apartment from the gap where the door used to be, and the very air outside of it seemed to have darkened to an oily black, likeink from some ghastly sea serpent.

"Today, Kyo Kusanagi, is the day that you will wish you had never crossed the path of the Orochi!" A voice boomed from the abyss. Goenitz emerged, winds so ferocious that they were practically visible swirled around him, carrying him into the room like a great deity of men. He jerked to a stop just inside the room and stared in wonderment at the scene before him. Two women were in the apartment, one was young with long, blonde hair and wearing a purple leather bodysuit and the other was tall with black hair tied in a bun and wearing a blue tank top and skirt. They stared back at him in disbelief. They were sitting in front of a tv screen and each of them had a device in their hands that Goenitz wasn't familiar with. He pointed a slightly shaky finger at them.

"You, tell me where to find Kyo Kusanagi!" He roared. The younger of the two women fidgeted anxiously, but the older stared at him with a strange expression he didn't recognise.

"Well, this is K's apartment, we're just, like, looking after the place..." the younger one said, but then she blushed as Goenitz's eyes turned to look about the room; there were empty pizza boxes, socks, coke bottles, square plastic boxes with odd names like Tekken and Ridge Racer, a sunglasses rack and a sword laid across the carpet. "Just how he left it!" The younger one squeaked hurriedly.

"Who is this K'?" Goenitz asked weakly.

"He's a clone of Kyo." The older one said helpfully. "Anyway, I love the accent!" She said with a grin. Goenitz blinked at her.

"How many of these 'clones' are there?" He asked miserably. His prospects of finding Kyo suddenly dropping. "Do they all look like him, act like him?" He muttered.

"Well, there was about 100 or so to begin with..." The younger began. Goenitz sagged visibly. "But most of them are dead, so now it's just K'. And he doesn't look or act like Kyo, he's way cooler!" She chirped, grinning broadly. Goenitz concentrated, he could indeed sense two aura's like Kyo Kusanagi's, apart from the one from this apartment. When people live in a place they touch things, which leaves some of there individual 'scent' or 'aura' behind. One of the two other auras he could sense was stronger than the other, he wondered if this K' was much stronger than Kyo, or whether he was much weaker and Kyo had gained much strength since the last time Goenitz had fought him. He would go to the stronger aura first.

He became aware of the older woman standing right in front of him.

"Pardon?" He asked, realising she had spoken.

"I said; Doesn't that hurt?" She said, with a hint of curiosity and slight admiration in her eyes.

"Excuse me?" He said, not understanding. She looked down at his chest and he followed her gaze. A sword was imbedded in his chest up to the hilt, but there was no blood coming from the wound. Goenitz touched the sword hilt experimentally, it seemed real enough. He hadn't felt anything when Diana had stabbed him. He pulled it out quickly and watched as the wound closed quickly behind it, he still hadn't felt anything. He looked up at her angrily.

"What happened to you saying; I love the accent!" He said angrily. Diana grinned at him, feeling like she was running out of options. A seemingly invincible man had burst into the apartment that they were supposed to be taking care of (heaven knows how she was going to explain the door to K') and now he was angry at her.

"Well, I do like the accent, but if I walked into _your_ apartment uninvited, blowing the door off upon entry, then I think you would be annoyed too." She said quickly. Goenitz's face turned from angry to an apologetic look.

"Ah, yes, sorry about that." He muttered, stepping towards the door quickly. "I'll just be on my way..." He muttered, then spun around and vanished in a tornado.

Kula walked up beside Diana.

"Who was he?" She asked, in between sucking on a lollipop.

"I don't know." Diana said quietly. "But I think Kyo Kusanagi is in for a tough fight..."

He was in the inter-dimensional void. A kind of space between reality and the Orochi realm.

It was how most Orochi travelled from one place to the other. It was actually quite slow, but compared to flying around the world on a plane it was fast. It was always deathly quiet in the void, like a vacuum of sound; you could hardly hear your own thoughts. But right now they were loud and clear, because they were in communion with a higher being.

"So you noticed my modifications?" The voice of Orochi said in his mind.

"I'm invincible! How?" Goenitz replied excitedly.

"I have granted you much of my power. Coupled with your own, already impressive powers, they have made you a force to be feared." Orochi's calm voice said.

"I won't fail!" Goenitz laughed evilly.

The void swirled onwards.

An old woman looked up from her book as the shop door opened. Firstly a young man with wavy blonde hair and wearing a black tank top and black trousers entered. He turned and held out his hand to another youth, who was wearing a corset and a skirt and had her hair curled into two huge pigtails. She looked like someone out of the book the old woman was reading.

They approached her and the young man, who's strange coloured eyes shone brightly, gave her a polite smile.

"Excuse me, but I would like to enquire as to whether or not you had seen someone?" He asked with extreme politeness. The old woman found herself taken aback, it had been a long time since she had heard such a soft-spoken youth. "He would be taller than me, with similar hair to my own, a moustache and one of his eyes would be missing."

"Yeah, a customer did enter matching that description, it was yesterday though, he would be long gone by now. He had a right sinister look to him, but he seemed kinda confused, him and his lady friend." The old woman responded, trying to hide her deep Southtown drawl to sound more polite. The young woman, who was obviously much less polite and was giving the old woman a look of barely hidden disdain, raised an eyebrow at the mention of a 'lady friend.'

"Did they happen to mention where they were headed?" Adel asked, hiding his own emotions better than his sister. The old woman seemed to give it some thought.

"I can't say they did, they bought some clothes, changed and left. If it's any consolation, I think I overcharged them." She grinned slyly, but Adel's face remained motionless. He suddenly put his hand in his trouser pocket and pulled a large amount of dollar bills out. The old woman's mouth dropped open as he put them nonchalantly on the counter in front of her, they were all 100 bills.

"You have been most helpful." He said, flicking a strand of unruly hair away from his eye. He then turned and took Rose by the arm, as the old woman counted the bills without noticing them further, and walked out into the empty streets. Rose looked about at the 'rude words' on the walls.

"Where do we go from here, dear brother?" She asked a hint reproachfully. Adel looked about himself with a studied eye. He knew about places like this, it was quiet as the grave right now, but at night time it would come alive. Thankfully his sister was less studious in this kind of place, she tended to read more sugar coated books, although it was hard to believe it when you scorned her.

"I suppose we could look around some more, but I foresee little success." Adel said wearily. "In such a long time father could have travelled a great distance." He muttered. They walked across the narrow street and studied a public chair that had seen better days before people had used it as a privy and a chewing gum disposal bin. Rose turned away in disgust.

"Eww! These people are barbarians!" She said tartly. Adel grinned to himself, that was probably the harshest insult in her own personal vocabulary. Then an idea struck him.

"People!" He shouted excitedly. "Someone may have seen him, with his unusual appearance people would probably remember him, so we should look for a place with lots of people in!" He surmised. Rose looked at him blankly.

"Where would that be?" she asked with genuine incomprehension. Adel grinned at her broadly in triumph, which unnerved most people because of his pale complexion and strange red eyes, but Rose was used to it.

"A drinking establishment." he said, as he turned and began walking in a random direction. Rose ran to keep up with him.

"A house of ill repute?" She muttered miserably as she fell into step beside him.

"A house of information, dear sister." He corrected. "You really need to broaden your horizons, here's your chance."

"There's a 'house of information' this way?" she asked, staring at the narrow streets before them.

"In Southtown? most definitely."

Damp footsteps echoed through the streets. It had turned from a fine day into a horrible, rainy and misty day as soon as he had stepped outside. His trench coat did nothing to stop him from being drenched; although it needed a wash anyway. He didn't necessarily dislike the rain, and the fog was always a nice touch for a days 'work.'

He grinned at a passing person, who had tattoo's covering both his bare arms and a shaven head.

"Alright, Blenky." He said through golden teeth. The behemoth grunted in acknowledgement as he passed by.

He was on a _special_ assignment, which meant that Konrad wanted him out of the way. He hated Konrad's frozen guts, the goddamned stiff had been promoted to Krizalid's 2nd in command over him. 'Bollocks! God knows that I'm better than that stiff.' Carrik thought to himself gloomily. He opened his coat slightly and fumbled about in one-of-many hidden pockets. He cursed under his breath and eventually pulled out a half-empty bottle of whiskey. He took a long draught, but paused mid-drink and listened, his eyes narrowing dangerously. He screwed the top back on casually and thrust it back into the recesses of his coat. He continued on walking with his typical hunch-backed strut and turned a corner. He threw himself against the wall and waited.

Any observer would be impressed by the cat-like movements and utter silence of the shadow that moved along the wall not 10 feet behind him. It peeped around the corner and then shrieked; a high-pitched cry which suggested that the shadow was in fact female. Carrik's hand shot out and grabbed the ninja around the throat, pulling her around and against the wall in a vice-like grip before she could defend herself. He held his arm across her throat and brought his rat-like face as close as possible to hers; which was difficult, because she was actually taller than him.

"Who sent ya?" He hissed. She struggled and reached behind her back to grab at a concealed weapon. A butchers knife flashed in front of her eyes and she went stock still. "I asked you a question." He said, reaching behind her and pulling a long, thin knife out of her grasp. She hissed at him before answering.

"Unhand me, vermin." She growled. Carrik's face broke into an evil grin. He took in her full appearance slowly. She was wearing a strange outfit for a ninja, practical but effective. She wore a black scarf around her mouth to conceal her identity. She also wore a full black cotton bodysuit and a belt around her waist. The collection of blackened knives of various shapes and sizes on her belt drew his attention, but his attention was mainly drawn to other assets, like the pervert that he was.

"Why, when I thought we could have some fun?" He said, his hand lowered from her wrist and gripping her behind roughly. She pulled a knife from the wide selection on her belt with her free hand as fast as lightning and pressed it against his neck, point upwards, as the butchers knife in his hand waved inches from her nose. The grin on his face didn't cease, but he let go of her behind as she pushed the knife upwards painfully. They stared at each other for some time.

"How did you know I was there?" She asked angrily.

"I always know when women are about." He said, without moving his jaw much. "Call it male intuition." He muttered, and then licked his lips. She cringed at him.

"You're disreputable!" She said angrily. Her eyes flickered to the butchers knife that could probably take her nose off if she were to push the knife upwards into his brain, it could trigger a sudden hand movement. He knew this as well, it wouldn't kill her, but it would hurt like hell.

"Sticks and stones, babe." He said, his teeth glinting as he grinned slightly. "But we seem to have reached a stale mate, as you posh birds might say. You put yours down and I'll put mine down."

She glared at him with mistrust.

"I'm not being paid to kill you. You put yours down first." She said, her eyes flicking back to the butchers knife. Carrik slowly pulled the butchers knife away and put it back in his belt. The ninja slowly, but surely lowered her own blade.

Carrik breathed out and rubbed his chin, a small blotch of blood had formed where the knife had dug in.

"So, Konrad sent you, did he?" Carrik suddenly said. The ninja gasped.

"How did-?"

Carrik pointed to a small marking visible on her left-upper arm. The K symbol.

"I didn't only look at your breast's, babe." he said with a grin. She glared at him with disdain. "What's your name, you might as well tell me, or I'll just beat ten shades of shit out of Konrad until he spills the beans." He continued as he sat down against the wall, regardless of the puddles and the terrible weather conditions. She wasn't so used to the harsh weather, and she shivered slightly. Any gentleman might have offered her his coat, but Carrik wasn't a gentleman, and she wouldn't take his horrible coat if he _did_ offer it.

"First, tell me one thing; how _did _you know I was there?" She said as she moved closer to the wall where the gutter high above shielded the ground below from the rain.

"The zip on your bodysuit caught the wall as you sidled along it." He said absently. She blinked a few times. "Most people would have missed it, but I've been on the streets long enough." He explained. A good thing she was wearing the scarf, because she blushed in humiliation.

"My name's Alla." She muttered. He barely heard her through the rain.

"Right, Allah..."

"It's Alla."

"...Fancy gettin' langered?" He said as he reached into his coat and pulled the remainder of the whiskey out. She looked at the bottle for a while before declining. Anything that had been near _his _mouth probably wasn't drinkable by other human beings.

Krizalid and Whip looked up as a figure appeared before them.

"Ah, Konrad, is it done?" Krizalid asked.

"Yes, the message was delivered." The tall figure replied, his gaze flicking to Whip for a moment.

"Well done, now you may go." Krizalid said dismissively. Konrad bowed quickly and then turned and walked out of the great hall. He had learned to hide his feelings long ago, so the soldiers who saluted him as he marched towards his office had no idea that he was very, very annoyed.

So far not much had come up about this 'Muchiko,' it was like she had never existed until recently. Or, most probably, her history had been painstakingly erased by her former employee's; the NESTS cartel. He had only been able to find that out about her, other than the fact that K' was her brother. Like most things that NESTS had touched in some way, she was more trouble than she was worth.

His time was approaching, he didn't need some little bitch screwing it all up.

"I can hardly wait!" Whip said happily. Krizalid grinned under his high collar despite himself. "I know it's only been a short while since I've seen him, but things were going really well until the whole kidnapping thing..." She said, forgetting her present company. Krizalid frowned again, like he did most of the time these days. "...we still have so many places to see." She continued on without noticing, staring at an open manual in her hands labelled 'The Wondrous Sights and Sounds of Southtown!'

"It isn't the best place for sight seeing." Krizalid remarked. Whip turned the manual around in one hand and thrust it in front of Krizalid's bemused face. He took it gingerly in one hand. On the page were a number of landmarks which Krizalid had never seen, or heard of, before.

"The Arch de Geese?" He said, raising an eyebrow. Whip grinned broadly.

"Yup, it's on the main street just a small walk from Howard park." She said excitedly.

As he stared at the strange and wonderful landmarks Krizalid felt an unusual emotion, one which he couldn't quite pin down. He turned a page of the leaflet and saw 'The Southtown museum of international art.' It wasn't particularly flashy, just an old building. But it was one of the few buildings that had survived when everything else had fallen around it like confetti. Inside it works of art, or more precisely works of peoples imaginations, dreams and feelings, had survived unscathed. K' probably didn't care for art or sculptures or famous places, but Krizalid was different in that way. History was important, he knew. He would like to see these sights as well, but he would enjoy them that much more with Whip by his side.

"Could I-" He began, but turned and looked at her, meeting her eyes. The words came back and hit him like Maxima with a grudge.

_I'm not your sister!_

_I don't want to be involved with you anymore!_

"Yes?" She asked politely as he froze mid-sentence. He handed the leaflet back to her without another glance.

"Never mind." He said.


	10. Pawns chapter 9

Chapter 9: Uncertainty

Disclaimer (Who cares about the story? THIS is what you're all reading for!): I, Grey Rayne, do not own anything, whether it be items, characters, place names or anything within The King of Fighter's universe. I do own a few miscellaneous characters within this story, but they may be used freely by all.

King of Fighters is a trademark of SNK Playmore.

Somewhere in the Sahara desert, 20 miles south of the Atlas Mountains...

A scarab beetle scurries along the sands, slowly making its way over one of the many large dunes. In the near distance an oasis with many tropical trees and plants contrasts perfectly to the miles of burning sand around it. The beetle scurries along without wondering about these desert features, its goal for today is to get over this dune and start to burrow a new home for itself; snakes had taken over its last home.

It paused as a sound interrupted the usually quiet desert, like the sound of a sandstorm.

A helicopter appeared over a nearby dune, flying low enough to the ground to cause a large amount of sand to shift.

The beetle tried to hold onto something, but finding nothing it gave in and blew away (Landing on the head of a snake and slightly concussing it.)

The helicopter flew even lower to the ground as it slowly began to hover in mid-air. A bulky figure fell out of the open doors and landed face first in the sand below. It lay still.

"Sir, when should we return to pick you up?" A muffled voice shouted over the din. A hand raised and waved slightly, causing the chopper pilot to shrug and veer the helicopter back the way it came.

The figures hand dropped with a muffled grunt of exasperation.

Ralf reminded himself never to jump 20 feet off a helicopter again, even onto sand, as he picked himself up and dusted himself off.

Most people would wonder 'what the hell is he doing here?' but most people didn't know about Jazek 'Monster, raving, Looney-tunes' Aneirin, Jaz for short. He was a strange little man, he was originally from Samoa, but when his parents died at a young age a distant relative brought him to Africa, where he changed his name to Jazek Aneirin after finding religion. It doesn't sound that strange until you meet him. He lives in solitude, completely and utterly away from society. He's a seer of enormous power, claiming that god gives him visions of things mortal men shouldn't know of, he was never wrong. Which is why Ralf, who had once saved the old mans life on his first, and only, trip back to society (Because he missed the taste of beans) when a group of muggers attacked him and Ralf happened to be in the city on a mission.

Ralf made his way steadily towards the oasis. He stepped through the trees, making sure that he wasn't going to stand on anything lethal, and made his way around the waters edge to a cleverly concealed hut. It was built directly under a large palm tree, which had bent over to an almost right angle over the years of sandstorms and growth. The hut was made of wood mainly, covered over with palm leaves and held together by old looking ropes. It hadn't changed since the last time Ralf had been here.

"How long has it been?" Ralf muttered to himself as he stared at the hut reflectively. It had been many years, the last time he had been here Leona wasn't on the team, in fact it had been when Heidern still had two eyes and he hadn't even adopted Leona yet! Ralf had been a lot younger, still a rather green soldier. But he was forgetting the time later when he had brought Heidern and Clark along to meet the old man. Heidern and Clark had been rather spooked out by the old mans ability to practically read their minds. When they had entered, the old man, before anyone else could say a word and without even turning away from repairing his peace pipe, had said "Hello there, Ralf. Looking a little more muscled than I remember. This must be your friend Clark and your Commander Heidern. Pleased to meet you!"

Ralf entered through the shanty door, crouching because the whole building was made for someone who was 4 foot 5 inches and even smaller when he hunched his back. He felt slightly worried that he would find bleached bones that had once been the old man, but his fears were soon answered.

"Long time no see, Ralf!" A shrill voice chirped as he entered. He looked up from his stoop, banging his head on a wooden roof beam, and saw the old man smiling up at him from a cross-legged position. He was sitting in the exact centre of the hut on a grass mat, his skinny frame only slightly worse for wear than Ralf remembered, despite age trying its best.

"Hello, Jaz." He said in as friendly a voice as he could muster under the circumstances. Jazek never wore much clothing, only a loin cloth, although most of his body was covered in tattoo's from his youth, needless to say it made situations slightly worse.

"How's your young lady friend, Leona wasn't it, poor deer being ill and all." Jazek said, pouring something that looked like milk into a coconut shell. He offered it to Ralf, who took it gingerly.

"How did you know-" Ralf began. The old man smiled what would have been a toothy grin, if he had any teeth left. "I mean, that's why I'm here." Ralf finished lamely.

The old man turned around on the spot, with surprising agility for his age, and fumbled in a nearby basket full of odd items. Ralf glanced over the old mans shoulder and saw a stuffed black bird in the basket, a necklace made of teeth, a mummified doll of the voodoo variety. Jazek fumbled under these and pulled out...

"A pocket watch!" Ralf said, flabbergasted. The old man gave him a blank stare as he placed the watch delicately in front of him. It was very old and the glass was smashed, the hands had stopped at 1 and 3.

"Mock not The Stopped Watch of Power and Stability!" The old man warned with a serious expression. Ralf composed himself as the old man closed his eyes and concentrated. Ralf stood for a while, waiting for something to happen. He expected the old man's eyes to fly open theatrically. He knelt down after a while and looked at the watch laid out on the ground. Nothing stirred for quite some time. Ralf started to feel impatient. He was about to ask what the old man was doing, and shake him if he'd fallen asleep, when something happened. Ralf became aware of the small room darkening. He might have imagined it, but it was as if a cloud had passed over the sun; this being the Sahara desert in the dry season it was slightly suspicious. Then he became aware of a noise at the edge of perception, he looked down again at the watch. It had begun to move, the big hand going around at a surprisingly fast pace. The room darkened further and the old man's head drooped forward. Ralf was about to move forward and check if he was all right when the old man's head came back up again. It was different, younger in years but still the old mans face, somehow. The usual expression of maddened joviality was replaced by a sterner look; lines the old man didn't posses had formed to make a scowl of concentration.

"Speak now mortal." The voice came, but it was deeper and tinged with a new accent that Ralf found unfamiliar. The dark eyes, now in deeper sockets and shadowed from view, looked down at the watch. "When the watch of stability once again strikes 1 and 3, no more knowledge shall I pass too thee." It said cryptically.

"I have a question: What the hell is going on?" Ralf asked with a slightly shaky voice. He had heard about possessions, he and Clark had watched a few programs for laughs about them. But this was creeping him out completely.

"I am Kaemon. All knowledge shall pass from me. Ask what you came to ask and leave." The possessed old man said. Ralf's mouth dropped open.

"Uh... I asked the old man, Jazek that is, about why my friend, Leona, is suddenly having Riot of Blood type fits." Ralf asked with a slightly nervous air.

"The blood boils but is still, it has awakened not, but her link causes grief." The being uttered in a strong voice, as if talking to a child who needs discipline. Ralf tried to work out what had just been said, but failed.

"Eh?" Ralf asked hoarsely.

"The blood of the Orochi is linked together. A powerful force or gathering of energy will be felt by all those touched." The being uttered. Ralf worked this out slightly easier.

"So Iori was also affected by this?"

"The mortal Orochi Iori was affected in a different way. The Orochi flame burned the land but affected him little."

Ralf got to his feet.

"Who's behind this _gathering of power_?" He demanded. The being stared straight ahead, as if not even seeing him.

"The Orochi known as the Heavenly King Goenitz." It said monotonously. Ralf became aware of the room darkening slightly more, but this was because of the cloud of anxiety he suddenly felt settle over him.

"I have to go." He said, turning around and moving towards the door.

"Your time is not up." The being called after him. Ralf turned.

"I don't care. Tell the old man I said thanks." He then turned and crouched out of the doorway.

The being, left alone in the small room, slowly moved its hand over the ticking watch.

"As you wish..." There was a flash and the darkness disappeared. The old man blinked at the empty room for a short while, wondering where Ralf had gone off to.

"Kids these days." He muttered. His eyes moved downwards to the watch. The hands were on 1 and 3...

Ralf half-ran half-lurched up a dune, his leg had cramped up. He tripped on nothing, which happens sometimes against all laws of physics, and landed flat on his face again. He rolled over and sat up, taking his radio out of his belt. He pressed a few buttons on it.

"Charlie, get that helicopter here, right now!" He roared into the radio.

"S-sir!" Said a slightly worried voice on the other end.

"And bring the long-range radio equipment, I need to send a message to Heidern ASAP!"

"Is something wrong, sir?"

"Yeah, the shit's just hit the fan."

Rose whined piteously. They had been walking around for quite a few hours without any further trace of there father. Her legs were hurting and she was beginning to feel hungry, which always made her irritable.

"Brother, I'm tired." She whined as she plodded along behind the silent figure.

"Just one more place and then we'll go back to the 'Noah." He said calmly without turning to her.

She sighed heavily and plodded on.

Adel pushed open a door to a rather posh looking establishment. The noise inside dropped for a moment as the newcomers were examined by the patrons. Rose felt awkward as she realised that she was drawing most of the attention, mostly from the male patrons, but a few female drinkers were discussing her unusual attire in hushed voices. She followed closely behind Adel as he pushed through the crowds to the bar and fumbled in one of his pockets. A barmaid grinned at him, although slight apprehension was visible in her expression.

"If you want a drink, you're going to have to show me some ID." She said to Adel, which resulted in some of the close-by patrons chuckling. Adel didn't even respond to the comment, but pulled a small picture out of his pocket and held it up in front of her face.

"Have you seen this man?" He asked politely. The woman stared at the picture for some time. Adel was good at reading expressions, and the woman's expression suggested that she had seen him but was hesitant to give away his whereabouts. Adel's expression grew colder by the second.

"Where?" He asked quietly. The woman hesitated even more. "Tell me!" Adel suddenly said, his voice louder than he had intended. The noise in the bar subsided and all the attention was riveted on him. Rose looked about nervously and then realised that the attention of some of the patrons was turning elsewhere. She turned to follow their eyes and her heart skipped a beat. She forgot the ache of her legs and began to run across the room. The world seemed to slow down as she leapt, sailing in the air with her arms outstretched and a huge grin on her face. The face of Rugal turned from impassive to a comical mask of horror as the strange girl flew towards him.

"Daddy!" She cried out, completely ignoring the other people that stood around him.

Rugal hit the ground with a thud as the girl latched onto him. To his further horror, she began to sob as she buried her face into his shoulder.

"Daddy, I missed you so much!" She sobbed piteously as Rugal looked up into the faces of people around him, silently pleading for help. Kyo was laughing, Vice looked bewildered and K' had an expression of sympathy; Kula did that to him sometimes; minus the sobbing.

Kyo stopped laughing as he looked up and across the room into a red, humourless glare. Adel silently walked across the room and stood between Rugal+Rose and Kyo, glaring fiercely at the King of Fighters legend. Adel turned and looked down at his sister and father. Something wasn't right, but he couldn't detect what. Rugal looked back at him without any hint of recognition. Adel turned his gaze away to a woman he thought he recognised.

"Miss Vice." He said. "I see you have also returned to us."

Vice blinked a few times before asking.

"Who are you, anyway?"

'Ah...' Thought Adel, his premonition that she wouldn't recognise him either being proven correct.

"I am Adelheid Bernstein, and this is my overly emotional sister, Rose." He announced. His eyes flicked between Kyo and Rugal. He leaned down and took Rose gently by the shoulder, pulling her off Rugal, who sighed with relief. Rose gave Adel a glare, silently demanding that he explains. Adel leaned down to whisper in her ear.

"Rose, father seems to be suffering amnesia." He whispered, so that only she could hear. Rose looked at Rugal, who got up and brushed himself off. She noticed that he didn't seem to recognise her as their eyes met.

"Is it permanent?" She whisper-screamed to Adel. He didn't answer, but Rose could tell from his face that he didn't know.

The noise levels in the bar slowly came back. Patrons at La Illusion were used to drama happening there, it was another reason the place was so famous. Who needs to watch a drama on TV when you can see it live?

"I think we should go upstairs." K' commented.

The alarm went off beside the bed and a hand shot out from beneath the covers, punching it off the table.

"I'm up, I'm up." King said in a muffled voice as she yawned widely. She had gone back to bed for a few hours after they'd got back. She pushed the covers off her and rolled over lazily. She lay still for another 10 minutes before she heard a voice in the back of her head say 'get up!'

She rolled off the edge of the bed and landed with a thump.

She looked blearily at the alarm clock on the ground in front of her. Realisation hit her that it was quite dark in the room, to dark. Through her blurred vision she noted that the clock said that it was 9:00p.m.

Three hours until the meeting.

Rugal was left alone in a dressing room, an assortment of items had been placed on the table by his son. He felt slight pride in the fact that he had a son who was so polite and well-spoken. Whatever else he had been, at least he had been a good father. His daughter seemed more angry, and bitter with the world. He didn't know how to act like a father, no, he didn't _remember _how to act like a father. But apparently his first duty as a parent was to try and look 'spiffy,' as his son had said. He pulled off the cheap shirt and trousers he had been wearing and examined the attire laid out for him. He picked up the red jeans, custom made he could tell. They shone in the light. The dress shoes had hard soles and looked like they had cost more than a hundred dollars. He put the clothes back on the dressing table and moved to the more peculiar items. His son had given him instructions on how to use them, but he felt uneasy about it. A metallic arm, it looked sinister in nature, like it had been built for the sole purpose of making the owner more menacing. Moving along to a round metal device and picking it up giddily, he looked at the thing with a frown on his face.

"Well, you never know until you try..." He mumbled. He lifted the thing slowly, with reluctance, and pushed it into his empty eye socket. Nothing happened for a moment and he blinked. Then he felt the strangest sensation, as if something moved behind his eye socket, gripping onto the snapped tendons that lead to his brain. He held up his hand to his head as a shooting pain suddenly lashed out. But then it was gone. The world swam into focus. He held up his hand close to his cybernetic eye and he saw it illuminate with a red glow. He had more than perfect vision, he knew, it was like he could focus on anything and he could zoom in to it. He could probably see in the dark. A quick inspection in the mirror made his mouth drop open. It looked...demonic, in a way. He liked it, he had to admit.

The metal arm was picked up and pressed firmly onto the stump of his right arm, unafraid and itching to see what affects it would have, he pressed a button near its base. It tightened around the stump and he felt a low buzz as the arm came alive, using the natural electricity in his body and magnifying it. Strength, horrifying and pure, that's what it was. Strength, power and control, he liked these, but he couldn't let it go too far. Not like before his amnesia.

You can have strength, You can have power and control, but what would you do if you had _everything_?

It would be too much.

His thoughts were sullen as he pulled on the clothes and tucked his shirt in. Over this he put on a coat, which he had stared at for quite some time, intrigued. It was a ringmasters coat, red and black and matching his other garments.

He stopped out into the winding corridor of the monstrous flying fortress and looked out of the window at the darkening countryside.

There was a feeling in the back of his mind, like knowledge that you can't pin down. If he tried to concentrate hard enough he thought he could make out what this feeling was. Something was coming, getting closer and closer. He didn't know if this had anything to do with K's sister being kidnapped.

As he mussed on this, Vice quietly stood beside him and looked up at his glowing red eye. She then touched the new metal hand carefully. Rugal didn't feel it, but he realised that someone was beside him and turned, slightly quicker than he had intended. Vice jumped at his suddenness. Rugal stared at her as if he hadn't seen her before. Vice realised that he hadn't seen her with two eyes before, but felt slightly uncomfortable under his scrutinising, and frankly quite unnerving, red gaze. He relented and turned his attention back to the window.

"Couldn't sleep?" He ventured without turning.

"I have this feeling..."

"Like something's coming?"

"Yes, how did you-" Vice quavered.

"I've been having the same feeling..." He said quietly. Vice absently looked about the corridor to see if anyone was watching, or listening. She lowered her voice to a whisper.

"Not something. Some_one. _A presence, twisted with hate. When I asked Adel if he felt something similar he said no. But I feel so certain about it. Rose said it's probably something to do with my Rocky blood."

"Orochi..." He corrected, whispering also. "I was apparently imbued with some of it myself, but that's what originally killed me, according to my son." He still couldn't get around the fact that he was a dad, but it helped that his son was a very polite, well-to-do young man. It was slightly more painful because his daughter, quite frankly, wasn't very polite, but she was kind of stuck-up, which was classy in a way...

"Is this person coming for us, do you think?" Vice mumbled. Rugal didn't respond.

Vice put her hand in Rugal's metal hand, but he didn't seem to notice. Rugal was surprised when he realised that Vice was holding his hand, but even more so when she wrapped her other arm around his and rested her head against his shoulder. Then she shut her eyes.

They stood like that for some time, two people who only remembered knowing each other for less than 2 days. But in these two days there had only been one constant, one pinnacle of certainty in all the confusion...

_Each other._


	11. Pawns chapter 10

Chapter 10: Revelation

Disclaimer (Poor me! Woe is me! Save me! Help! Please mummy no! I don't wanna write another disclaimer!.): I, Grey Rayne, do not own anything, whether it be items, characters, place names or anything within The King of Fighter's universe. I do own a few miscellaneous characters within this story, but they may be used freely by all.

King of Fighters is a trademark of SNK Playmore.

The throne room was quiet. The terrible quietness that can only be made by someone who wasn't making any noise. This person was sitting on the throne and was plotting, as always. He stared at his knees mostly, but briefly glanced at the big double doors. After a while he grinned.

"How long have you been here?" He said.

A figure stepped out of the shadows behind the throne and moved to his side without making a noise.

"Not long, my master." The ninja said without looking at him. Konrad's grin disappeared.

"I'm sure I sent you after the street rat..." He said mirthlessly. She was silent for a while.

"For a 'street rat,' he's very perceptive. Although his manners were very fitting." She said, staring away into the shadows around the room.

There was silence for a time, and she turned her head to look at him.

There was a question hanging in the air which she didn't want to ask. That throne was Krizalid's, and only Krizalid's. Konrad could get into a lot of trouble if he was found sitting in it. He didn't seem to care though, like he didn't care about most things. A few years administering lethal injections for death row prisoners could do that to people, if they were the wrong sort for the job. He had moved on after that to become a business consultant. One of Krizalid's aide's had discovered him, 'a cold man with enormous potential and a background in law enforcement,' it didn't sound appealing to Krizalid until he actually _met_ the man.

"Lord Krizalid isn't himself, have you noticed?" Konrad said monotonously. "That girl has clouded his judgement. Yesterday he was talking about _helping _people!" He spat the words as if they were something vile. Alla's eyes narrowed as she looked at him.

"It doesn't sound that bad." she said, folding her arms. He muttered something under his breath. Alla thought she heard the word 'plan' in there, she had good hearing.

"What are you planning, sir?" She asked before she could stop herself. Konrad didn't flinch, but a small smile curled his lips, a fake grin of course.

"Nothing gets past you, does it Alla?" He said, leaning back in his chair. "Once I'm in power you will be at my side, and that _rot_, Carrik, can be left to wash up on a beach somewhere."

Alla expected him to laugh maniacally, but he was too reserved for that, although she got the impression that, inside his head, he was laughing his ass off.

Another figure stepped out of the shadows behind them and moved beside Alla. Konrad stood up quickly, but a thin hand grabbed him around the throat with surprising speed and pulled him back into the chair. The face of Carrik, grinning terribly, appeared in the corner of Konrad's vision. Alla watched but didn't interfere.

"That's what your planning, is it!" Carrik hissed, practically in his ear. "You're gonna knock off old Krizalid and take his spot. I always knew you was a wrong-un, too much crap goes through your head to be reliable."

Konrad's face remained impassive, but Carrik caught the quick, angry glare he sent in Alla's direction.

Apparently she saw it as well.

"Please try to understand, master." She said. "When you got that tattoo on your arm, the same one as me and everyone else, you swore allegiance to Lord Krizalid. For life."

Konrad stared at her, then turned his glare at Carrik. Much to their surprise his face broke slowly into a grin, there was no humour in it.

His foot came up and pushed Carrik, it would be quite an ineffective blow, but the few steps behind Carrik made him stumble backwards awkwardly. Konrad leapt over the falling figure and made a dash towards the exit. Alla knew that if she let him go it would be trouble, but her hands were already instinctively reaching for one of her throwing stars. There are three kinds of creatures who will react instinctively when someone runs away from them; dogs, policemen and assassins. She brought here arm back. The throwing star landed straight and true in the back of Konrad's neck, his rapid dash didn't stop, but he veered sideways, staggering, and ran into the wall beside the door. He slid down it slowly and lay still.

Carrik picked himself up with a few muttered curses. He stared firstly at the still figure lying in the shadows and then turned slowly to Alla.

"Ya killed 'im!" He said, with exaggerated shock.

"Was that wrong?"

"Yeah, I wanted to rough him up a bit first." He pulled a cigar which had been snapped in two out of his pocket and stuffed one part between his teeth. She gave him another disgusted look. Carrik struck a match on his own stubbly chin and held it in front of the cigar, but then his eyes narrowed. He pulled the cigar from between his teeth.

"That star-thingy killed him, right?" He said, without turning.

"Yes. Or at least paralysed him." Alla said, still glaring at him. He shook the match out.

"Where's his body gone?"

Alla followed his gaze to where Konrad, up until now, had been. There was a large amount of blood on the floor and a smear down the wall but the body had disappeared. Alla's mouth opened and closed a few times.

"That's impossible!" She hissed.

A dark figure lurched through the silent halls with surprising speed. The soul was still slowly filing out into the empty shell of the body, completely invisible to human eyes but to those of a supernatural disposition it would have been a suggestion of a shape in the air, like water draining down a plug. In life, Konrad had dabbled with forbidden dark arts. There was always a price for dabbling in the blackest arts, but he hadn't cared and he had met face-to-face with a demon of terrible power. He had made a deal with it and the demon had used powerful magic to alter the Orochi spell used to summon the humans known as Rugal and Vice, in return Konrad would offer up his physical body, in death, to the demon lord whom he had summoned. The demon stretched a pale human arm as it sprung to life.

The eye sockets of the figure moving through the shadows were illuminated with a fiery red glow, it's deathly pale face outlined red by the sheer brightness of its eyes. It knew what it had to do, it wasn't interested in political power or control, unlike Konrad, it was interested in its own survival in the mortal realm. To do this it would need greater strength. It knew where to get it. Arms flailed in the gloom and burst through the huge iron doors of the underground facility as if they were as insubstantial as a house of cards. The fiery glow disappeared into the night...

"KONRAD ISTEN?"

Konrad looked up from the blackness about him, hearing his full name spoken by anyone after so much time gave him a start. Reality hit him as he looked up at the hooded figure looming over him.

"Ah..." he said.

"QUITE RIGHT." Said Death.

Konrad looked about himself, the darkness of this place made the great hall in the facility look like a field on a glorious summer day.

"Out of curiosity..." He said. "Which way am I going. Up or Down?"

Death slowly reached into his robes and pulled out a piece of ancient-looking parchment. He examined it for some time.

"YOU APPEAR TO BE GOING NEITHER, FOR NOW." he said, folding the paper and pushing it back into his robes. He stood aside and behind him a rift in space slowly opened, crackling with electricity and flames as it did so. The light coming from it was purple...

"THIS WAY, PLEASE."

K' regarded himself in the mirror, a frown forming on his face. Then he slipped on his sunglasses, zipped up his leather shirt and stretched. He had to be prepared for a fight, who knows what kind of goons this secret organisation had. At least he wouldn't be fighting alone. He had Kyo, Rugal, Vice, Adelheid Bernstein, King and, technically, Rose Bernstein on his side. No-one in their right mind would want to face all of them. He met his own gaze again in the mirror and sighed heavily. The enemy had the advantage though; they had Whip.

King stood outside La Illusion, waiting for everyone else to come out so she could lock up. She had left the spare key with Elizabeth, just in case something happened. Rugal was leaning against the wall not far from her, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. He had taken quite a liking to his new ringmasters coat, he said it 'felt right' when he wore it. King felt like she should try to start a conversation as the silence between them lengthened. She never got the chance, as Adelheid and Rose emerged from La Illusion, followed closely by Kyo then Vice and finally K'.

"It's nearly midnight, we should get going now." K' said. He didn't wait for their replies, but started walking in the direction he remembered the meeting place to be. It was a cold night and every breath he took came out as steam. Fog was beginning to settle also and he highly expected that this 'meeting' was going to be more trouble than it sounded. He heard the others fall into step behind him, followed shortly after by King and Rugal, who had watched out for 'baddies,' as he called them, whilst King locked up.

"I hope everyone's ready, we don't know what to expect." Kyo commented.

"I do not even know why we had to come along. It is unbearably cold out here!" Whined Rose, although she was wearing a mink coat that only left her eyes and the top of her head visible to the world.

"Father wishes to help these ladies and gentlemen in their endeavours, dear sister." Adel said without looking around. Rose didn't reply, but wordlessly placed her arm in Adel's, he didn't resist.

Vice walked close beside Rugal, who was walking along solemnly behind everyone else. She watched Adel and Rose, they were such a strange couple, Rose was rash as far as Vice could tell and Adel was reserved and polite to a fault. Rose seemed to have some kind of infatuation with Adelheid, but once you realised that he was the only family she had known since her father had died, Vice could understand it a little easier, otherwise it was kind of creepy.

"Nice boy you have there." She said out of the corner of her mouth to Rugal. He nodded, and Vice realised he was watching them also. "After all this is over, you can go back with them and maybe have a proper family. Who knows? You may even get your memory back."

"I'd rather not get my memory back, at least not all of it." He added. Vice nodded glumly. "What are you going to do, after all of this is over?" Rugal enquired.

The question hung in the air, and Vice realised that she hadn't thought about it. She knew that she was of Orochi bloodline, whatever that meant, but other than that what did she know about herself? She only had a first name, and no-one seemed to know much about her, even Adel couldn't scrounge up much info, only the few scraps that she already knew. The name Goenitz didn't ring a bell when he said it to her, but he had explained that Goenitz was some kind of Orochi king, or something. Her hopes of tracking this Goenitz and beating information out of him had been squashed when Rose had said, with uncanny politeness for her, 'yes, but he's dead, isn't he?' Adel had nodded.

Rugal was still waiting patiently for a reply.

"I...don't know..." She muttered.

"If you like." He said. "You could, perhaps, come with... me...?" She smiled up at him.

"That would be nice, but I don't know what your children will say."

He beamed at her, there was a trace of evilness in it.

"I'm sure I can persuade them." He said. Vice giggled slightly. She hooked her arm in his, much like Rose had done with Adel, and they plodded on through the cold night, unaware of what awaited them.

Whip looked around to make sure that no-one was around. Although it was getting close to midnight and extremely foggy she felt acutely embarrassed. She had said that she was cold and Krizalid had offered her his white-trimmed coat. It was far to big for her and the shoulder-plumes were bigger than her head, in the gloom she probably looked like a rather short three-headed monster.

Krizalid stood close-by, looking warm and toasty in his own coat. No-one else had been ordered to come with them, this was something that they had to do alone.

"It's almost midnight." He said absently, staring across the empty parking lot, no-one would leave a car in a place like this after dark, there were no security cameras; it was a perfect place for shifty business.

A shadow moved in the stillness of the night and they tensed. A cat meowed and scurried by. They untensed. But suddenly more shadows, varying in size, appeared in the gloom.

"This is it. Are you nervous?" Krizalid asked her. Whip gave him a surprised look.

"I guess." She conceded, although she was more excited than nervous. Although K' could be as gloomy and friendly as a broom closet at times, she hadn't realised how much she would miss him until he was gone.

K' appeared first out of the gloom, and saw Whip. She was running towards him and slipping out of an overly large coat. All other details about what was around her were ignored. She wasn't tied up and she looked in good health. She cannoned into his chest and wrapped her arms around him tightly. K' found himself returning the hug, and meaning it, without having to consult his anti-social half first.

Krizalid's heart sunk despite himself as he saw Whip and K' embrace, but that was what he wanted, wasn't it? The reason he had come back, to sort out the lives of people to whom he had caused grief? He noticed that, despite the heart warming reunion, everyone else was staring at him. Kyo stepped forward and stood a few feet in front of him.

"Long time no see." Krizalid said jovially. Kyo remained impassive. "Don't tell me you've forgotten me?" Krizalid went on, with a mock expression of hurt.

"How did you survive?" Kyo demanded. Krizalid continued grinning, but the look in his eyes took on a haunted look.

"I didn't." He said forlornly. "You've got to give NESTS some credit though, when it comes to cloning and such-like." He waved his arms. "They made a nice, new body and I happened to find my way into that empty shell. Possession is two 5th's of the law, Kyo Kusanagi." He grinned.

Kyo raised his arm, flame spouting at his fingertips, ready to wipe that mocking smile off Krizalid's face for good. But suddenly Whip appeared between them, arms outstretched and facing Kyo.

"Please, don't harm Krizalid. He doesn't mean anything by it." She said. Kyo stared at her in surprise. He held his arm up, unsure of what to do. K's hand took his wrist and lowered it.

"Let's hear what he has to say." K' said. Kyo looked at him for a moment, then turned his gaze to Whip, who gave him an encouraging grin, then Krizalid, who's face was suddenly sad for some reason.

Kyo's hand closed and the flame flickered for a moment before dying.

"Fine. Let's hear what he has to say." He said testily.

Rose stamped forward, shaking as if she was made of jelly, and rubbed her arms to try and keep warm.

"All of this tête-à-tête is interesting and all that, but may we please continue it somewhere warmer!" She hissed.

"Fine, let's go back to-"

"You are not going anywhere..." A voice, echoing with strange harmonics, boomed. It sounded as if it had come from above them.

A freak gust of wind blew them all over...


	12. Pawns chapter 11

Chapter 11: Wrath of a Heavenly King

Disclaimer (Authors eyes glow YOU WILL READ THIS!): I, Grey Rayne, do not own anything, whether it be items, characters, place names or anything within The King of Fighter's universe. I do own a few miscellaneous characters within this story, but they may be used freely by all.

King of Fighters is a trademark of SNK Playmore.

The fog around them took on an ominous redness and they stared up at a void above them, even as a figure emerged and slowly descended towards them. The figure hovered several feet above the ground, rage so violent that it manifested itself in the cyclones around him as tiny thunderclaps and eyes burning with wrath. The burning eyes fixed on Kyo Kusanagi and stayed there as he tried to pick himself up. With a move of the figures arm Kyo fell back to the ground as a cyclone lashed out at him.

He had found his main target, and the Kyo clone known as K' must have been the leather-clad man picking himself up, his aura very much like Kyo's but darker. Another figure befuddled him, its aura was like K's, but seemingly enhanced by some unseen power or creation of technology. He stared at this figure, even as he did so he could see the battle going on within it as its aura changed from light to dark. He pointed a finger at it and it was lifted into the air. He laughed evilly as a female figure tried to latch onto the legs but slid off.

Their gazes met levelly.

"And you are!" He demanded.

"Krizalid!" Shouted the female below them in alarm. Something latched around his foot and pulled him down. He was distracted enough to let Krizalid fall to the ground. Something else caught his other leg. He looked down at a women holding onto one end of a whip, the other end around his ankle. He turned again to see a woman he knew well, a shadow-like line stretching from her arm and wrapped around his other ankle.

"well, well! It's Vice!" He said tauntingly. He raised his hand and waved it in an almost dismissive manner towards her. The whip around the entities ankle broke away with a loud twang and snapped back at Whip, she caught it with expert precision but before she could do anything else a cry made her turn around. Vice released her hold on the entity's leg as a sudden wave of pain shot through her, she doubled over and held out her hand instinctively to stop herself from hitting the concrete. She coughed and a sticky substance escaped her lips. It was red...

"Ahaha!" He laughed. "Now, my Orochi puppet, do the job for me and kill these wretched humans, or die trying!" He moved his arm and Vice got to her feet unsteadily, like a puppet with a few vital strings cut.

Whip and Vice had dragged the entity just close enough to the ground...

...K' held up his hand, red flame instantly forming. The entity was to busy to notice as K' moved forward, becoming a shadow as he slid along the concrete as though it were ice, and reappeared beside him. An explosion of fire rocked the figure and pushed it backwards, its arm dropping through the sheer force. In the corner of K's eye he saw Vice stagger for a moment and then, the entities control over her having ceased, fell to the ground. King picked herself up and leapt over to the fallen figure. She bodily dragged Vice, who was heavier than she looked, away from the fight.

Once they were at a safe distance, King laid her down behind a telephone booth. She went to check the pulse but Vice's eyes shot open and she tried to sit up with a small cry. King grabbed her firmly by the shoulders.

"W-w-what the...?" Vice said, it was more of a hiss though. "W-what just happened?" She said, wide eyed and breathing heavily.

"Goenitz tried to control you, but you're ok now." King said as soothingly as possible, although her heart was racing.

"That was Goenitz!" Vice demanded. King took her arm and put a hand on her shoulder, gently pushing her back into a lying position.

"You should stay here." She said. "It's to dangerous for you..." Vice shot up to a sitting position again and grabbed King roughly by the shoulders. King only had to look into the big, worried eyes of the poor woman to realise what was wrong. She smiled weakly.

"Fine, I'll stay with you." She whispered. Vice gave up her battle with her consciousness and fell back into darkness. King wanted to go and help in the fight, but she had promised to watch over Vice and, damn it, that's what she was going to do. She rested the unconscious women's head in her lap and waited.

Meanwhile.

Goenitz moved away from the group. They had managed to stand up again, some of them muttering as they did so, and turned to face Goenitz. Krizalid stood a little way off from the rest of them, but faced Goenitz also.

"Damn you, Goenitz!" Kyo screamed. "Doesn't anyone ever stay dead when you kill them!"

Goenitz landed lightly on the ground, the red mist around him spiralling and beginning to lift as he stamped furiously.

"You'll pay, Kusanagi!" He roared. "Since 1996 I've been trapped in a dungeon because of you! I was left with nothing to do but eat and drink and wait for the occasional visitor!" His rage bubbled up as he remembered the tedious years draining by, boredom and misery and hate were his only company most of the time. The rest of the time it was Orochi or, later on, the other three Heavenly Kings.

"Friend of yours, Kyo?" Muttered K', but without humour.

"Krizalid, you with us?" Kyo said, ignoring K's remark.

Krizalid glanced sideways at Whip, who was standing close beside K'. She met his gaze and gave him a pleading look.

"Yes." He said. Kyo nodded and then grinned maliciously in Goenitz's direction.

"You're doomed, Goennitz!" He shouted. Goenitz grinned slightly in return.

"I've picked up a few tricks since last time, Kusanagi." He swung his arm at them. "Try me, if you dare!"

Kyo, K' and Krizalid, all being the types who liked to charge in and get the fight started, rushed at Goenitz.

Rugal, Adel and Whip hung back, being more cautious in nature, and watched for openings they could use to their advantage.

Rose looked about herself and wondered why she was still in the fray. She didn't have much fighting experience.

As Kyo brought his arm forward and a lick of flame flew past him from K', Goenitz folded his arms, laughed, and disappeared. The flames and Kyo's fist hit thin air. Kyo waved his hand about to put out the lick of flame that had singed his sleeve.

"Hot, hot! Watch your fire, K'!" He hissed. They stared about themselves, mystified.

"Where'd he go?" Rugal asked. All was silent for some time, but the red mist that had risen above them earlier descended upon them again.

"He'll be close, keep your guard up." commented Whip. There was a sound, like the sound you got when the last drop of water sloshed down a plug hole, followed by a shrill shriek of surprise which was cut off with a gasp. They spun around. Goenitz held an arm around Rose's throat. Rugal and Adel rushed forward, but stopped short when Goenitz pulled his arm back slightly.

"Let her go, fiend!" Adel demanded, throwing his arm out. Goenitz laughed softly.

"You know, once-upon-a-time I was a gentleman. But after so much wrong has been done to me, I figure, what is one measly human life, male or _female_?" As he finished the sentence he pulled back on Rose's neck sharply. She was beginning to turn purple. Adel moved forward, but then an idea struck him.

"Rose! Wind Slice!" He cried out. Goenitz gawked at him, wondering what the hell he was on about, but Rose dug her fingernails deep into Goenitz's arm, which he didn't even notice, and lifted her legs up with an effort. Adel kicked lightly. Rugal threw his arm up into the air. Two points of light hurtled along the ground and smashed into Goenitz's feet, they buckled under him and he fell forward, releasing his grip on Rose's neck. She fell forward too, and although she was coughing and gasping for breath, she scrapped at the concrete and tried to pull herself away. Goenitz grabbed her ankle in an iron grip from his prone position on the ground, his feet would take a while to heal. He grinned evilly as she cried out hoarsely. Everyone charged forward, ready to practically kick Goenitz on the ground until he was a pulp. Adel grabbed Rose by the arm and pulled her away, but Goenitz's strength came from centuries of training and Orochi power, it was like pulling a shark victim from the jaws of a prehistoric shark that would make the great white sharks look like sardines.

A hand caught Goeniz around the throat, it was cold and terrible, and it yanked him up to his feet, crushing his throat as it did so. He let go of Rose's leg as he was manhandled up and into the air. He looked down into Rugal's face, contorted by anger. He didn'tget much of a look, however, as he soon found himself hurtling through the air, spinning head-over-heels. He tried to stop himself, but even the strongest gust he could create wouldn't stop his sheer momentum. He hit a wall, which cracked and shattered as he practically bounced. He managed to spin around and land on his feet, which had almost completely healed already, in a crouch, holding his throat and gasping for breath.

'It's all going wrong!' he thought to himself. 'I had plans! Plans, damn it!' he punched the ground with his other hand.

Everyone else was looking at the now distant figure. Rugal and Adel were fussing over Rose, who had a nasty bruise all around her throat.

"He keeps healing." Krizalid said. "Everything we've done so far has been ineffective.

Kyo held up a shaking fist.

"We have to hit him with everything we've got!" he said adamantly. "He heals, yes, but just how much can he take?"

The others nodded, even as the distant figure stood up and kicked off the ground. It flew towards them.

Rugal held his arms back, power flowing down his arms and into his hands. Whip unfolded her whip to its full length, although the end had been snapped. Kyo held up his arm, flame shooting from it. Krizalid held out his arms at his sides, a pillar of fire exploding from the ground around him. Adel prepared his leg, ready to throw another Wind Slice. K' took his sunglasses off and prepared to throw them. Rose cowered behind a nearby trash can.

"Ok, everyone! N-"

"Not so fast!" Goenitz said, holding out his arm. A shockwave emanated from it and they all hit the concrete again, except for Rose, who got an empty Coke can gently falling on her head.

The Kaiser Wave flew up into the sky as Rugal fell to the ground.

High above...

A large military helicopter, containing a certain mercenary group looking for a certain Kyo Kusanagi, turned slowly again for another sweep of the area.

"You sure he's in South town, sir?" Ralf muttered, leaning on the back of the commander's chair. Heidern turned around in his seat and, tactfully but pointedly, nudged Ralf's hands off the black leather.

"Apparently so." He said. "That girl, what's her name?" He snapped his fingers irritably.

"Yuki..." Clark said from somewhere in the back of the helicopter.

"Ah, yes. Yuki. Kyo's girlfriend. She said that Kyo had told her he had been called by King and had went off to Southtown. Apparently it sounded urgent." He turned back and looked out of the wind shield. "Bring us in lo- What is that?" Heidern pointed, a ball of pale light rose up into the sky from a gap between two large buildings, it disappeared into the clouds.

"L-looked sort of like m-mortar fire, sir." Said the nervous pilot beside him. Heidern shook his head.

"It was too big, and mortar fire is supposed to come back down..." He searched through his memory for anything similar, not being close enough, he came up blank. "Bring us above those buildings." He turned again in his seat. "Everyone, headsets on, I want you to open the doors and have a look out when I say, got it?" There was a general murmur from the back of the helicopter on the theme of 'Yes, sir.'

Ralf sat down on his seat beside Clark and pulled his headset on. Leona sat opposite them, her arms folded and looking her usual gloomy self. Ralf liked going on missions, mostly for the action or the frill of the fight, but going to-and-from missions with Clark in his 'business' mood, Heidern, blurting out orders left, right and centre, and Leona, being moody, was never much fun at the best of times.

He looked up and stared at Leona, noticing that her eyes were glazed and she was looking at her knees.

"Leona." He said, she didn't reply. His eyebrow knit and he stood up and reached forward, gently touching her knee with his fingertips.

"Hey, Leona?" He said, a tinge of concern in his voice. She seemed to snap out of it and looked up at him, her face stern. "You were miles away, are you alright?" he asked. She looked down at her knees again.

"I'm fine." She said, although in a tone that suggested she was being broody.

"Enough Lollygagging!" Roared Heidern, in his usual fashion. "Headsets on, we're almost at the site."

They switched on the headsets, although when they opened the doors they would still have to talk loudly to be heard.

"Open Sesame!" Roared Heidern, forgetting that the headsets were on and nearly busting everyone else's eardrums. Ralf waggled a finger in his ear and Clark clutched at his head, even Leona winced. Despite this, they opened the doors as instructed and the world filled with noise. There wasn't much fog about now, but it hung around in a select area beneath them. It was quite thick and a slightly worrying red colour. Leona felt an ominous feeling sweep over her.

As Goenitz looked about himself at the sheer amount of fighter's he had beaten alone, although most of them were very powerful indeed, he realised that something grabbed his attention. Being the Heavenly King of Wind he had special perception which told him which way it blew. There was a downdraft blowing onto him from high above, and on the edge of hearing, through the thick fog, he could hear a strange noise. He peered upwards and moved his arms in two directions. The mists followed his commands and parted, slowly drifting away and disappearing completely. A helicopter was high above, slowly descending.

He didn't notice a pair of fiery eyes appear out of the shadows...

The demon saw the origin of the huge power it had sensed, it was far greater than even itself. A man with combed-back yellow hair and a black beard, who was staring up into the sky with fascination. The demon ignored everything else and lurched straight towards him, its knees resisting at first, but being wrenched into activity by sheer will power.

Krizalid, although dizzy, looked up. There was a figure moving on the opposite side of Goenitz. He stared at it as it came under a street light.

"Konrad?" He muttered. Then he looked closer. It was indeed Konrad, but the skin was deathly pale, flaking off slightly in places. It moved with an unnatural looking lurch, as though its legs weren't working properly. The eye sockets now contained horrifying red orbs, burning like fire, instead of the cold blue eyes he knew. And it was lurching straight towards Goenitz, its face the most calculating thing Krizalid had ever seen. He looked up into the air for a moment, involuntarily as dizziness took him, and saw a black shape above.

"Good guess, sir!" Ralf roared triumphantly, nearly deafening Heidern in revenge for earlier. "There's Goenitz and Kyo!" Ralf and Clark stared down. They noticed a familiar figure try to get to its feet and then topple over again. Ralf put his hand over the mouth-piece.

"H-hey, isn't that...?" He screamed in Clarks ear. Clark nodded gloomily.

"Yes, that's him." He said. Heidern spun in his seat.

"What's going on down there? Speak to me, people!" He demanded.

Clark put his hand over the mouth-piece.

"He appears to be fighting alongside Kyo and his friends!" He screamed at Ralf. Ralf's eyes had picked up another figure, though. It was looking up at them from its prone position.

"What is this, back-from-the-dead day?" He screamed at Clark, pointing towards the figure. Clark looked and then frowned deeper.

"I said, what's going on?" Heidern roared impatiently.

"Nothing, sir!" Clark shouted, before Ralf could say anything. Heidern was angry enough without the mention of the words; Rugal, Bernstein or Krizalid.

They didn't notice Leona up until then. She was staring down fixedly at the figure that was certainly Goenitz, her expression that of bitter recollection. Her face hardened in a determined mask that Ralf, Clark and Heidern had learnt to dread. She turned, stomped to the other end of the helicopter, kicked aside an almost empty ammunition box and grabbed something with both hands. It was long, black and made of metal. It had a smiley face on one end...

Something caught hold of Goenitz, his attention suddenly dragged back to the situation on the ground. He began to raise his fist to swat any of the bothersome flies who had managed to drag themselves to their feet. He looked down into a mask of terror. Heavenly King though he was, the cerebral confusion that ensued even derailed him. It looked human, but with horribly pale, lumpy skin and its eyes were glowing. He stared for a second to long and a pale hand lunged forward and ripped into his flesh, gripping his very heart. He gasped and blood came out of his mouth. The horrible apparition before him smiled terribly and Goenitz realised what it was doing. His huge reserves of power, given to him by Orochi himself, were being slowly drained. He grabbed the wrist and tried to wrench it out, but it wouldn't move. He fought and kicked at its knees, which showed little sign of buckling. It was like attacking a human-shaped slab of concrete.

He had an idea and brought his arms out, they were suddenly enveloped by a small vortex, spiralling around his clenched fists. He swung his fist with all his might, catching the apparition square in the jaw, which actually broke off completely. It still wouldn't let go. He brought both fists down on the top of its head, gouging a deep hole that would scramble its brains and would stop nearly everything else. But the creature wasn't controlled by a brain, it was controlled by the pure demon spirit within. He could see its aura now, darker than the dark side of the moon. Both hands swung again in a last desperate act and the arm thrust into his chest snapped off with a terrible sound. The figure roared, with only half a mouth to roar through it sounded like the angry howl of an animal. It grasped him around the neck in an immovable grip. He punched at the arm but it was to late, much of his power had been drained and now the terrible figure was a match for him in pure power. He wasn't indestructible anymore, he needed to flee and regroup. He hadn't foreseen this horrible interruption to his plans.

Leona dragged the large object across the ground and placed it on its side near the open doors. Although the thing weighed several hundred pounds, Leona possessed much greater physical and mental strength than many other people of the same height or weight due to high levels of Orochi blood and years of training. Ralf and Clark noticed it for the first time, they both wrenched off their headsets.

"Leona, what are you doing?" Ralf shouted, staring at the thing beside him in horror.

"Step aside." Leona said, her voice commanding and stern. Clark's face remained calm but Ralf's jaw dropped.

"You can't order-" Ralf began, but Clark put his hand over Ralf's mouth. "Mmmmf!" Ralf protested.

"Goenitz is down there, I must settle the score." Leona said quietly, looking over the edge. Clark managed to read her lips and nodded solemnly. Ralf swatted Clark's hand away.

"Yeah, but it's a _bomb_!" He roared. "If you drop that thing, that car park is gonna be just a big crater! There's _civilians_ down there!"

Leona gave him a glare, the kind she gave someone when she felt doubtful, she hated feeling doubtful.

"We'll give them a warning, then." She said.

"What if Goenitz moves?" Clark said. But he looked down to where Leona was looking and saw the strange fight ensuing between Goenitz and an unknown, and very strange, assailant.

Leona turned to them quickly.

"Has any of you got a coloured marker?" She demanded. Their faces went blank. "A coloured pen! or something like it?" She repeated. They stared, but slowly, with hesitation, Clark reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small black tube. Even Leona's mouth fell open.

"You carry lipstick in your pocket?" Ralf said when he could trust his own voice again. Clark remained impassive.

"It isn't mine..." He said with terrible calmness. "It belongs to one of my lady friend's." Ralf gawked as Leona quickly snatched it from Clark's unresisting fingers.

"Yeah, right!" Ralf barked. "You're a _real_ ladies man, alright." He muttered with extreme sarcasm. "I suppose you're going to tell me you have one of your 'lady friend's' Bra's in your shirt pocket next!"

Clark scratched his chin.

"Funny you should say that..."

Leona wanted to tell Ralf that Clark _was_ a real ladies man, because _she _thought he was attractive. But she was too busy, and besides, it would probably hurt Ralf's feelings...

She turned the bomb around and lifted it up with slight difficulty. Ralf and Clark could see that, on the tip of it, just above the smiley face and written in glossy-pink letters, was the word; LEONA.

She held it at the very edge of the doors and looked over the side of the helicopter, waiting for the right moment to drop it.

Ralf grabbed the stereo on the wall, which connected directly to a large speaker system beneath the helicopter. He waited for Leona's signal.

She nodded.

"Banzai!" He roared into the radio.


	13. Pawns chapter 12

Chapter 12: Finale?

Disclaimer (does Final Disclaimer Dance(TM) ): I, Grey Rayne, do not own anything, whether it be items, characters, place names or anything within The King of Fighter's universe. I do own a few miscellaneous characters within this story, but they may be used freely by all.

King of Fighters is a trademark of SNK Playmore.

King poked her head around the phone booth, the ominous mist had lifted and a helicopter was hovering above the place where the battle was occurring. Vice was still unconscious, but mainly because she was tired rather than because of injury. King wondered how everyone was fairing...

A strange cry echoed through the street, over the _whopwhopwhop _of the helicopter above.

"Banzai!" It roared. Everyone dragged themselves away from the battle between the Heavenly King and the zombie-thing, apart from Krizalid, who had received a heavy blow to the back of his head. Whip realised he was still lying still, as everyone else made for cover. She ran to his side and reached down, trying to pick him up, although he was very heavy to her. He staggered slowly to his feet and looked at her through glassy eyes. A strange noise filled the air, like a long whistle.

Krizalid's eyes became clear as he heard the noise. He pushed a startled Whip on the ground and threw himself over her protectively...

Goenitz didn't hear the warning or the low whistling, but he was still fighting desperately to get away. If he teleported he would take the creature with him. His mouth turned into an o of confusion as a shadow loomed over him. He looked up.

What he saw he would not forget. For about 2 seconds he saw a cartoon smiley face and the word; LEONA.

Everything went black.

The explosion was bigger than even the Ikari warriors had expected. Ralf ran to the cockpit and slammed his hand onto the back of the pilots chair.

"Charlie, get us out of here!" He roared. The nervous pilot automatically obeyed.

Bits of debris rained down around Rugal, Adelheid and Rose as they ducked behind a bench. They peered out and across as the explosion subsided, although glass from the nearby buildings tinkled around them. Across the street, a long way off, they could make out the heads of Kyo and K', peering out from behind a car. They couldn't see Whip or Krizalid.

King picked herself up and winced. Her ears rang and her head felt slightly fuzzy. Vice's gentle sleep had definitely been interrupted and she peered towards the parking lot with extreme worry on her face.

"Oh my god..." She whispered. "Adel. Rose. Rugal..." She ran off towards the parking lot before King could stop her. King fell back against the phone booth.

"Long day..." She muttered.

Krizalid rolled over and off Whip, who sat up painfully. Although Krizalid had tried his best to shield her, she didn't have his kind of protective armour. She looked over at him as he dragged himself a few feet from her, and reached behind his back with a grunt. He wrenched something out of his lower back with a sharp gasp and looked at it critically. It was quite a long piece of metal, probably from a park bench caught in the blast. He slumped forward.

Whip crawled over to him and turned him over, his breathing was coming in sharp gasps. She looked in horror as a small puddle of blood trickled out from underneath him.

"Krizalid, hold on!" She shouted at him. He opened his eyes a fraction and smiled at her wanly. He opened and closed his mouth but no words came out, just a gurgle.

"Don't try and speak!" She searched him for other visible wounds, finding several less serious lacerations, one slightly deeper on the back of his head and a deep stab wound in his back, just below the ribcage. "Someone help me!" She cried out, as she ripped a large portion off her sleeve and tied it about his head. She pressed her hand firmly over the worst wound.

A dark figure rushed out of the gloom, Whip sighed in relief when it turned out to be K'. He leaned down beside them. Krizalid, slowly and unsteadily, reached up and took hold of K's shoulder, then pulled him closer. K' would usually protest, or worse, but this was different.

"K'...Look after...your sister." Krizalid said, his voice was low enough to be a whisper. K' nodded, examining the wounds on Krizalid with a solemn expression.

"Don't say things like that, Krizalid!" Whip said, as old tears, tears she thought she had long ago shed, welled up in her eyes. Krizalid turned to her and smiled.

"I suppose..." He said hoarsely. "...that... I'm about to become... the angel... I... was meant to...be..." His arm fell.

"Krizalid? Krizalid!"

Goenitz stood up and stared at the man standing beside Orochi. He looked very much like the creature that had attacked him, except his skin wasn't as pale and his eyes were more human. The thing that worried Goenitz the most was the uniform he was wearing.

"Welcome back, Goenitz." Said Orochi, grinning widely. "Back early, I might add."

Goenitz looked about himself in woe. He was back in the Orochi realm, which meant that his physical body had been destroyed.

"LEONA!" He roared, throwing his arms out and flailing them about.

It occurred to Orochi, and not for the first time, that Goenitz, over the years, had come unglued.

"Who's this?" Goenitz said after a long pause. He pointed at the figure beside Orochi.

"This, my dear Goenitz, is Konrad." Orochi's grin this time was so large and glossy that it threatened to make the top of his head fall off. "Your replacement."

Goenitz's face slowly contorted as this information sunk in.

His bestial wail of pain, anger, hate, depression, annoyance and vulgarity could be heard even by Shermie, as she swung her hips and danced seductively at Brad's 25th Birthday Bash.

She grinned.

The world slowly swam into focus. A familiar figure was sitting in a chair by the window, leaning back with her legs crossed. She held a book in one hand. He tried to speak, but found that his voice didn't work. She turned, noticing a movement in the corner of her eye, and smiled brightly as she saw him.

"You're awake!" She cried, jumping to his bedside. He nodded and looked at her thoughtfully; she looked as though she hadn't slept for days, her eyes were bloodshot and she had bags under them.

He gestured with his hands, as if writing on an invisible piece of paper with an invisible pen or pencil.

"Ah, I get it. I'll be right back!" She leapt away and out of the room, her excitement completely evident.

He grins at her boisterous attitude and then looks down at himself. For the first time he noticed that he wasn't wearing his usual gear. He lifted up the bedcovers gingerly and looked down at himself. He was wearing a white nightgown, he cringed as he looked at it, and then it hit him that he must be in a hospital. He shuddered. As he dropped the bedcovers again he looked across the room and jumped slightly in surprise. A young woman had appeared in the room, she was staring at him with weird purple eyes. Her blonde hair fell across her shoulders and he realised that her purple outfit looked sort of like K's...

In her hand she held a stick, it had candy floss on it. She grinned at him with a slight tinge of nervousness, the kind most people get when meeting new people. She held up a gloved hand in greeting.

"Hey, there." She said, her voice was soft. "You're Krizalid, right?" She said, tilting her head to one side. Krizalid nodded lightly. She suddenly beamed at him and walked towards the bed. She plunked herself down on it, just avoiding sitting on one of his legs.

"Wow, K's told me stuff about you!" She chirped. "I'm Kula by the way." She added after a thoughtful pause. "Kula Diamond, pleased to meet you!" She extended a thin arm.

'Ah...' he thought. 'the Anti-K?' He placed his hand in hers gingerly and Kula gave it a hearty shake.

He tried to gesture with his hands, after she had let go. He held his fingers up and tried to make a K with them.

"Yup, he's cool!" She said. She watched his hands carefully. He pointed at her and then at the K. She looked slightly affronted. "No, me and him are just friends..." She said slowly. Krizalid shook his head rigorously and held out his hands. He tried to spell out a word with his fingers.

"A...M, no. N? T, that one was easy! I. Anti?" She looked blank for a second and then grinned brightly. "Oh, Anti-K! Yup, that's me. Pretty famous, aren't I?" She stood up and struck a pose. He couldn't help but grin.

'She could be the poster-girl for cuteness.' He found himself thinking.

The door opened and they both turned. Whip came in first, holding a pen and paper in her hands tightly. Behind her was K', he gave Krizalid a nod, which was a hearty greeting in his book. After him came a large man, whom Krizalid remembered as Maxima. He gave Krizalid the kind of worried grin that he had become used to, there were still a lot of people who didn't fully trust him in the world. After him, to Krizalid's mild surprise, was Kyo Kusanagi. He had an expression of almost terminal annoyance on his face, because trailing after him was a red-headed man wearing red trousers, a black top and a long white shirt underneath, which hung out at places. Krizalid's eyebrows knitted as Iori Yagami glanced at him without interest. Someone _else_ tripped in through the doorway and picked himself up with a slight grumble.

Krizalid wished his voice would work, so he could tell at least half of them to blow off. But that was his evil half talking, and he decided against writing that down on the notepad that Whip handed him gently.

He wasn't wondering why Shingo was here, because Kyo was here. But he wondered why Iori was here, because Kyo was here...

He jotted it down and handed the notepad to Whip. She didn't even need to read it out, though, because Kyo saw Krizalid's eyes move between them.

"Why's Iori here?" Kyo said, more loudly than was necessary. Iori grunted in annoyance. "Let me explain. We happened to bump into each other and we started fighting, but the cops arrested us and now that we're out he's following me around until I give him a rematch." Iori nudged him in the ribs sharply.

"Yeah, and no chickening out or setting your wanna-be here onto me." He said, motioning towards Shingo. Shingo grunted indignantly and held up his arm threateningly.

"I'm not a Kyo wanna-be, ya big jamoke!" He hissed. Iori turned and laughed at him, but K' interfered before things got out of hand.

"I'd like to remind you that this is a hospital." He said darkly. They muttered between themselves.

Krizalid, meanwhile, had written something else.

"Krizalid thinks it's a bit too crowded in here..." Whip said. She grinned at them apologetically.

"I'd agree." muttered Maxima, who was squished between the wall, Kyo and K'. The room was, after all, very small.

"This is my cue to get out of this crap hole." Said Iori. He looked around thoughtfully for a second, grinned, and then grabbed Kyo by the back of his collar.

"Hey, what the-!" He shouted, as he was dragged out.

"You're not getting away from me, Kusanagi!" Iori's voice was heard. Shingo ran after them.

Maxima breathed out.

Whip looked at the paper again. She grinned.

"You've been out cold for a week." She said, in answer to his question. "And I've been watching over you all the time. You gave us a scare a few time's, we thought you weren't going to make it."

He tried to sit up but a shooting pain from his lower back stopped him. He grimaced.

"Don't try to move for a few days. You've had a nasty stab wound and the stitches are still in." Whip said quickly. He took the notepad and wrote furiously. She took it. After reading it she gave him a haunted smile.

"You're voice doesn't work because they had to... put a tube..." She trailed off.

"They had to put a tube down your neck to assist your breathing. In the process it scratched your vocal cord." K' supplied without the mushy feelings of his sister. Krizalid's look of horror made him soften a little. "But it isn't permanent, you'll be able to talk again in a few days." Krizalid sagged in relief, looking at the notepad.

He felt kind of weak, and the words on the sheet of paper in front of him were going in and out of focus. He quickly jotted something down and held it up to Whip.

"He's tired. We should let him rest now." She announced.

One after another they were shooed out into the corridor, in a combined effort by Kula and Whip. Kula gave Krizalid a final wave and a bright smile before she disappeared around the doorframe.

Whip stood by Krizalid's bedside for a while longer. Then she turned and silently snuck out as his eyes shut. She looked back in and stood there for quite some time, before finally closing the door fully.

When she turned she almost walked into K', who was leaning against the wall.

"What happens next...?" he asked, staring at his feet.

"I don't know..." She leaned against the wall beside him and they just stood there for a while in silence, both their minds looking at a strange future. Whip broke the silence with a heavy sigh, and looked down at her own feet. She pinched the bridge of her nose.

"You're exhausted." K' said, turning his head to her. She grinned weakly. "You should get some rest."

"Someone has to watch over..."

"I'll stay." K' interrupted. "I think Kula wants to, also. She seems interested in meeting someone else who can use flames." He said, scratching his chin. He patted Whip on the shoulder. "So you take Maxima back to our place and tell Diana that Kula won't be too long. I'm sure she'll be relieved." He mumbled. Whip gave him a bright grin.

"Ok, then. Take good care of him. And yourself!" She began walking away down the corridor towards the guest area. "And Kula!" She added. K' sighed heavily. It was to much like hard work...

On the SkyNoah.

Rugal sat up and yawned hugely, stretching his arm and cyborg-arm-thingy above his head. Then he frowned at the room around him; it was in complete disarray, with furniture strewn about and clothing strewn about on top of that. The pictures on the walls were crooked and several of them had fallen off and smashed. The very bedcovers around him were ripped.

Vice sat up beside him, and leaned towards him.

"Ready to go another round?" She purred.

Rugal beamed.

Somewhere else on the SkyNoah.

Adel frowned. The 'noises' had started up again. He stared at the chess board in front of him with an air of concentration, trying to ignore the sounds.

"Maybe having her on board was a bad idea." He muttered.

Rose pulled her earmuffs off.

"What?" She said.

Leona stood up, sweat beads forming on her brow. She wiped them away quickly and stood to attention. Ralf jogged by, his wheezes and muffled complaints trailing away as he stormed around the huge courtyard in the grounds of the Ikari Warriors HQ. Clark sat up for the last time and dragged himself to his feet with an effort. He stood flawlessly to attention, although his stomach rang out in pain.

Heidern slapped a stick across the palm of his hand meaningfully.

"Hurry it up, Ralf!" He roared at the distant figure. A groan could distantly be heard. He turned slowly to Leona and Clark, and stared at them. He tapped his foot. He looked at an illusionary watch on his wrist meaningfully.

Ralf finished his final lap and landed heavily on the cobbles beside Clark. He dragged himself to his feet and stood to a shaky attention. Heidern drew himself to his full height and stared down his nose at them.

"So, what have you learned from this little exercise?" He said in the tone of voice used to talk to children. The three exchanged glances, then Leona saluted smartly.

"Don't drop bombs on our enemies, sir?" She said without sarcasm. Heidern gave her a blank look.

"No. Dropping bombs on our enemies is what we do!" He reached into his sleeve and pulled out a paper tube. He unrolled it and then threw it onto the ground in front of them. It was the Southtown Time's. The front page had a picture of a large crater in the middle of an urban zone. The headlines; Southtown, the site of terrorist bombing?.

"There was a civilian injured in the blast!" Heidern roared. "There have been two breaches of etiquette here. 1. disobeying orders. Perpetrated by Leona! 2. A superior officer failing to control his troops in the event of the absence of an even more superior officer. Perpetrated by Ralf!"

"Sir, you weren't absent..." Clark said, but sizzled under Heiderns gaze.

"I was busy at the time, planning our next move!" He hissed. Ralf stared down at the newspaper.

"At least we made the front page, sir." He hazarded.

"You're all restricted to the base and its surrounding grounds for the time being!" Heidern roared. Leona, Ralf and Clark looked so dejected that he softened a little.

"Don't let it happen again." He muttered. "Dismissed." They saluted smartly.

Somewhere on a mountain range close-by...

A silent figure stared down at the camp as the day slowly drained away and the moon began its long journey across the dark sky.

It shone on a pale face, mostly covered by a hood. The suggestion of white hair could be made out, before it was tucked away again in the deep shadows.

This is where it would all begin. This is where he could make a new life. This is where he could make his _own _destiny.

Le End...?

SEQUEL ALERT!


End file.
